Art of Attraction
by AcquiredMadness
Summary: Yale graduate and science major, Emily Fields, decides to become a tutor for the undergrads of the university as a side-job. Although quite nervous for her first "teaching experience", she makes up for it with her love for science and hopes to change other's negative perspective of the subject. What happens when one of her students changes her perspective on her life? [G!P]
1. Chapter 1: Hi, My Name Is

_**Welcome. I am your magical teller of tales, AM, here to show you your favorite paring in a brand new universe. I have brought you an angst-filled Emison, a hopelessly in-love Emison, and a dangerous and sexy Emison. Today, you will embark on a new journey from this mini-series I like to call, "Art of Attraction".**_

 **Hello, you. My name is AcquiredMadness, mostly called AM by those familiar with my work. Before starting this story that I had the pleasure of sculpting and bringing to life, I wanted to specifically say that this story, Art of Attraction, isn't your typical full length fiction but seen more as a mini. What's the difference? Well, the chapters/chapter length will be typically shorter. If you know AM, you know you can expect 11k worded chapters at a time. And those normally are the shorter ones. But here, the chapters are relatively smaller and more straight-forward than my average.**

 **So…what is Art of Attraction?**

 **Just to get the most important things out of the way - this story may** _ **not**_ **be for everyone. Actually, it** _ **will not**_ **be for everyone. Why do I say so?**

 **One: This story what you may call a "G!P" fic. Very different from my line of work, of course, but comfort boundaries will be pushed as I see how far I can take my stories.**

 **Two: Have you ever heard of "Porn without Plot"? Where a fic is just smut with a minor story to hold things together? Well, get ready the opposite because AoA is basically porn** _ **with**_ **a plot. If you've never taken cold shower before, you're about to become acquainted with it very quickly, my friend.**

 **Are you still with me? If you're still on the fence, I encourage you to take a test drive. If you realize, "No, this isn't for me.", completely understand. All I ask is that you respect my work and do not trash it for that sole reason. If you're ready, let's begin the long-awaited journey of Emison's** _ **Art of Attraction.**_

CHAPTER #1: Hi, My Name Is

 _Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action._ **Bolded is a flashback.** (….) is an indication that time has passed.

A still Sunday night gives way for locals to casually enjoy their last hours of the weekend before the work week refreshes. In a cozy Applebee's, a small circle of friends sit at a table not too far from the bar as they converse among themselves about their latest occurrences.

"-And I look at him like, "you've _got_ to be shitting me." But he was dead serious." Spencer explains to the table with a straight and narrow face, having to relive the craziest thing to have happened to her this week.

"No way." Ezra's mouth drops with an astounded smile as Mona and Emily intently listen to Spencer's more than intriguing storytelling.

"It's as if he suddenly grew balls that morning but I'm just like, _I outrank you, bitch._ _Who the hell are you?_ "

"That's what I'm saying!" Mona laughs alongside Emily and Ezra as Spencer bitterly shakes her head with the roll and flicker of her eyes, raising the brim of her vodka soda to her lips for another sip.

"That reminds me wh-"

"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt." the waitress strolls up to their table with a large platter in hand. Ezra happily cuts his story short with an eager rub of his hands as she sets the platter on a stand and begins to pass out orders to their specific buyer.

"Whisky bacon burger with sweet potato fries?" she holds the first warm plate up, scanning the table for a brief moment.

Ezra holds a finger in the air. "Right here."

She gently places the large plate in front of Ezra as he moves his drink out of the way to clear space. Turning back to the platter, she grabs another meal.

"Fiesta lime chicken and garlicky green beans with bacon…" she announces as she slides the plate to Spencer, remembering her order specifically because of her constant back and forth of not knowing what to order.

"Shrimp scampi linguine with garlic mashed potatoes..."

"Come to mama." Mona stares down the two plates that make their way before her with greed glazing over her eyes.

"And bourbon street chicken and shrimp with steamed broccoli…." the waitress positions the last dish in front of Emily. "All for you."

While everyone gave their thanks for the delivery, Emily feels a hand rested on her shoulder.

"Is there anything else that I can do for you guys?"

" _No, thank you."_

" _Uh, this is good, thanks."_

" _We're good."_

Emily looks up at the waitress who happened to peer down at her at the same moment.

"Would you like a refill on that?"

Emily checks down at her nearly empty glass and decides why not, grabbing it before glancing back up at the young woman with a small head nod and tight smile.

"Blackberry honey ice tea, right?" the waitress smiled at her, her hand still on Emily's shoulder.

"Right." she responds back, attempting to match her enthusiasm. The waitress excuses herself, promising to be swift. When Emily's eyes leave her walking away to look back at her friends, she realized they've all been silently staring at her with concealed smirks and smiles which, initially, made her uneasy at first.

"What?"

"I know I wasn't the only one that saw that." Mona clicks her tongue with a slight head jerk to the side as she puts her straw into her mouth, sipping her drink with eyes that knew all yet chose to remain quiet.

"Oh, you definitely weren't." Ezra joins in with a laugh. "I mean, I didn't want to say anything but…it's getting pretty obvious now."

"What was obvious? What are you guys saying?" Emily pushes for an answer, her brows tightening with confusion as she now felt like the monkey in the middle while everyone else threw the ball way too high for her to reach, making the game not enjoyable for her.

"We're saying how our waitress has been totally hitting on you since we got here and you're absolutely clueless to a woman basically hurling signals at you." Spencer pops her two cents as she scoops and chews her first spoonful of yellow rice.

"I'm pretty sure it's just called customer service and wanting a good tip." Emily shakes her head with an eye roll in response to all of them making assumptions. She picks up her fork and stabs a well-seasoned shrimp that sizzled on top of her chicken. "Not everyone that smiles politely and treats you with respect wants to date and/or sleep with you."

"True _but_ she is being wildly evident." Spencer replies.

"What does she have to do to make it obvious to you? Tuck her underwear in your pocket?" Mona seemingly becomes Spencer's tag team partner as she could not help slipping in a remark of her own.

"Okay, thing one and thing two. _Eat_." Emily points her fork at the girls as if she was their mother. They always go down this road. Every time this happens, it's the same thing. The same encouragement. The same balloon of hope they fill and give to her.

Spencer shrugs, looking down at her food as she spoke her last peace. "I'm just saying. Maybe you should go for it. You never know what kind of person she may be. Maybe the right one for you."

Emily mockingly scoffs with a chuckle, almost as if she couldn't believe that Spencer actually said what she said. It's always the _same thing. Same talk. Same thing._

"We all, at this table, know how unlikely that chance weighs in my favor. No need to go through something I already know how the result are going to turn out. It's a waste of time and I have too many things to focus on to play _what if_ with everyone I meet."

The table gets silent as the rumble of the restaurant carries on the life around them. Everyone minds themselves, digging into their food with nothing to say. It started as just a friendly taunt but it got seriously quickly. And honestly, they knew better. They knew that the topic of dating has always danced on the serious line of insecurity.

Emily takes in a deep and quiet breath and proceeds to reach for another shrimp when their waitress comes back to her with a glass of ice tea.

"And here you go." She sets down the glass and grips the back of Emily's chair as she surveys the entire table. "How's everything tasting? Need anything at the moment?"

Another round of no's and thank you's are expressed, allowing the waitress to nod and move to her next customers. Nobody dared to speak up about this girl's continuous moves towards Emily however, with a clearing of his throat, Ezra decides to take the floor.

" _Well_ , I think a toast is in order. Although it's not an enormous accomplishment, we here still celebrate the little things we achieve, right?"

"Of course." Spencer relaxes into her chair, relieved that things weren't going to stay awkward.

"With that being said, I want to congratulate Emily and myself on our new side job that we've recently decided to take on. As you guys know, we originally were going to tutor 2-3 students individually for this semester but Emily, here, just got the news that she will be taking on a whole group."

"Woah…..how much money will that be?" Mona's eyebrow raises. She knew that the two expressed the thought of tutoring in their free time but it was always an idea that was tossed around in the group chat a couple times. Now that they actually pursuing it, she's interested in the financial aspect.

Emily takes a few chews of her bourbon chicken and leans back into chair. "I mean, we were going back and forth on prices and thought that $15 an hour would be a reasonable amount-"

"Especially when you're tutoring an English course like I am. Anything higher with our lack of experience would be robbery." Ezra squeezes in.

"Exactly. I have a range of courses I can do with when it comes science so I thought $15 wouldn't be too bad. Although, I went in a little different route which is the more complex the class, the higher the cost. But not too high, you know? There are plenty of tutors out there that are charging an arm and a leg just for some help so I'm trying to at least reach out to undergrads that genuinely need help but lack funds."

"This is Yale." Spencer darkly chuckles with an exhale as she splits her chicken with her spoon. "Nobody lacks funds."

"At the end of the day, I'm more into showing science in a new light to people who don't understand it more than collecting a check." Emily straightens up from her slouch. "But when it comes to rates, Ezra is doing $15 which _is_ reasonable but I mean, English's complexity compared to science's? We're obviously on two playing fields so I decided to have $15 as the rate for the simpler classes like intro. Five dollars higher each level up."

"How much is this group paying?" Mona asks.

Emily reaches for her cold ice tea and takes quick sip as she now begins to get into the technical side of this new job.

"Well….they seem to be all in the same class - friends, I'm assuming. But this class is chemistry. Chemistry and forensics to be specific. So for that, because it's still a lower level, I would charge $20 an hour. Of course, that's how much a one-on-one would cost but this is a group of five. I could have charged $20 per person-"

"And I hope you did." Spencer states more as a demand than as a question as she leans into the table across from Emily with her face scrunched. "That's $100 right off the bat, $200 for just one session, $400 a week, $1600 a month. I mean-"

Spencer reaches over and nabs a couple sweet potato fries from Ezra's plate, tossing it in her mouth before Ezra was able to say anything.

"That's some real fucking good pocket money just for helping some kids with their homework."

" _I'm_ not even getting that much." Ezra pouts as he stares down at his plate, almost reevaluating the scheme of things in his head.

Mona shrugs. "Maybe I should start tutoring…." she states simply, swiping a fry from Ezra's plate as well.

"Okay, wait a seco-"

"I gave them a group discount." Emily picks up her fork and knife and begins cutting into her bourbon chicken.

While everyone else was unbothered by Emily's payment practice, Spencer felt like she was the only person who thought that Emily was making a mistake, crippling herself before she even starts.

"WHY?" her mouth drops and eyes widen with her hands out in disbelief and confusion. "You should have worked them. They're undergrads, they're practically infants and probably desperate since they are getting a tutor this late in the semester."

"I decided because it's a group, a standard rate would be easier to deal with money wise. Plus, it's good when you want people to spread the word." Emily responds to Spencer's overly attached sentiments towards a deal that had no connection to her ever so simply as she sticks a fork full of chicken into her mouth.

"So I'm just charging $160 altogether for each session."

"And to that, a toast." Ezra quickly raises his to drink in the air before Spencer can continue to sputter out her distaste. "To…education and…..helping the less academically fortunate….and getting paid all doing it."

" _Cheers_." they all lift their glasses high in the air, clanking against each other in a small celebration.

….

The cool breeze of the November night greets the group of friends as they finally leave the establishment. Emily buttons up her long, checker plaid peacoat as she pushes through the exit doors last. The gang say their rounds of goodbyes for the night, giving hugs and cheek kisses with promises to have another night out sooner rather than later. As they begin to split up and head for their vehicles, a voice called out in their direction. Everyone does a quick glance at the restaurants doors when they see their waitress walking out, singling for just Emily's attention.

"Hey…" she walks up to Emily, shoving her hands into her jacket.

"Hi. Is there something wrong?" Emily steps into the young woman with almost a hushed voice, not quite understanding what prompt her to follow them outside.

"Oh, _nonono_. Everything is fine. I, uhm…. I just wanted to catch up with you before you headed out."

Ezra bows his head with the biggest smile plastered on his face as he tried to keep his laughter silent and to himself. He walks towards his car and unlocks it with a press of his car keys.

" _Goodniiiiight_ , Emily!" he calls out in a mocking tone that only Emily would catch onto.

"See you later!" Mona joins in with a pep in her voice as she spun around to face Emily, walking backwards to her parked vehicle. She waves innocently enough to believe before she quick stepped it into her car to escape the cool winds.

All Emily could do is wave at her friends who made sure to take their time driving past the curb of the restaurant, prolonging their goodbyes from their windows – Spencer specifically making a knowing face at Emily while the girl wasn't looking before she blended herself with the flow of traffic in the night streets.

The waitress stares down at her shoes with a small laugh as they both stand alone for a few moments.

"I hope that I wasn't being all awkward earlier." she finally speaks as she raised her eyes to meet Emily's. "I've never been good about flirting…"

Emily suddenly gets caught up in her words, trying to come back with a response now that she's hitting the reality of this girl coming forward about her not-so-subtle moves.

"Oh, I-I mean-you…you were fine. Don't-don't worry about it."

"Look, I know it's late and you probably have somewhere to be early in the morning so I don't want to hold up your time but….I was hoping that maybe I can treat you for a round of drinks?"

Emily glances behind the girl back at the doors they just walked out of with a slight on-coming grimace. This is when the waitress quickly corrects herself.

" _Not here_ , obviously, but at this spot a little bit more downtown?"

Emily sucks in a bit of air, looking around but never directly at her. "I don't know….It's-"

"I won't keep you too late, _I promise_."

Emily's eyes finally glance down at the shorter girl as she stares up at her with hopeful eyes that wishes not to be rejected in the cold. She reaches up to scratch her temple in thought with another deep breath before a light, polite smile graces her face as her hand moves up to her hair then back to her sides.

"Okay." she finally agrees.

….

Keys clink against each other as a door is unlocked. Emily steps over the threshold into her home and secures the door behind her, leaving her standing in the darkness. She stares off into the space before her, just….breathing.

She stands in silence for what feels like an entire minute before she collects herself, slips out of her boots, and trudges forward. She drops her keys on a small table by the entrance on her trek to her master bedroom at the end of hall in this one story house she lived in. The buttons on her coat pop off one by one by the time she pushes through her room door, still in complete darkness.

 _Exhausted_.

She was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted.

….

Her eyes are buried into the crease of her arm that laid across her face. It was her way of almost concealing her visuals, not wanting to see. A black and red comforter hid her lower body from her mid-section on down. Another way of covering herself. Not wanting to see.

Her right hand slickly graces up and down gradually, keeping a steady tempo for a minute before she picks up the stroke - her breathing hitching as she almost begins to pant. With every upwards pull, she felt herself getting closer and closer like waves of a trembling ocean rocking against a lone boat. With every second that passes, the waves become higher as its force increases. This back and forth continues until the lone boat cannot withstand the crashing waters and capsizes, succumbing itself to the demand of nature.

Emily begins stretching out her legs with her toes pointed, her hips starting to rise as her hand speedily brings herself to the pinnacle of this session. Her groan morphs into whimpers when she climaxes, bursting a warm substance directly onto her stomach. It takes her nearly 30 seconds of a come down as she laid tiredly in her bed, breathing ragged with her hand now still to match her motionless body.

The silence of her home surrounds her like a chokehold.

You try to fight it at first but the grip tightens, squeezing every breath out of you to the point your gasps turn into struggling wheezes. Everything is now still and blurred as you begin to realize…

You're suffocating.

A tear trickles from an eye in the midst of the quietness of the midnight. It rolls down her face, sliding to her neck when her chin begins to lightly tremble as the second instrument in this humiliation orchestra. She moves her arm from across her face to shield her eyes with her hand, however, it does not stifle her small cry but only expedites it.

She cannot help feeling the way she does. This happens every time. And every time she told herself it was the last time, a pretty girl would smile at her, a hand creeping to touch, leave her eyes wandering purposely so Emily knows she's looking and test the waters, all just to make her relapse.

All those green lights are constant reminders that although flirtatious now, in the long run when all is exposed, it will never amount to anything as she's never going to experience life with someone on that level, normally. Not today, not here.

And that's what makes her shameful as she wipes her eyes with the bottom of her hand, slowly rolling herself out of bed.

Being exposed.

…..

Emily Fields - Chemistry and Forensics

Emily pushes the cap back on the red marker as she stared at the white board she stood in front of. It was empty in the room she was in but only because she was the first person there. Using an open, smaller classroom on campus for this tutoring session, she couldn't help to feel nervous. Extremely nervous. She's never taught before and wondered if she could really do this. These younger, undergrads are coming to her for help. What if she can't prevail? What if their grades don't see an improvement?

She does have to admit that she is a bit out of her comfort zone. Although she can get through public speaking when it's an absolute must, she's never had that great of a track record with her peers when she was in enrolled at this school years ago. What if she doesn't connect with them? What if they don't like her?

New and constant what if scenarios play through her head as she decides to flip through the copy of the textbook the group is using to pass the time instead of just awkwardly standing at the front of the classroom.

About 3 minutes later, 10 minutes before their agreed session hours, a girl popped her into through the doors of the room.

"Is this the Chemistry and Forensics tutoring?"

"Yes, yes, come in, please." Emily barely contains her eagerness as she stands up and closes her book. The girl takes a seat in the front at the long, horizontal table and Emily doesn't know exactly where to place herself. Does she stay behind the professor's podium or does she get closer to the girl in order to create a personal-like greeting?

"You're a part of the group that's coming in right?" she elects to go the safe route and strike up a conversation from where she is.

The girl briefly looks up at Emily as she pulls her books out of her large, blue floral bag. "Uh…yeah. The others should be in coming in."

"And what is your name?" Emily tries to be personable as she pushes the conversation along.

The student sets everything out in front of her, placing her pink water bottle at the top of the table before she looked up at Emily once again now that she was ready.

"I'm Sydney." she simply introduces herself.

"That's a pretty name." Emily smiles with her eyes as her face lightens up with a friendly grin. She extends her hand out towards the student. "I'm Emily."

"Hi." Sydney shakes her hand with a small smile in return.

Getting on a first name basis, Emily crosses her arms, a little bit more confident now that maybe she could do this.

"So, are all of you guys friends or…just classmates who decided to get extra help."

"We're all friends struggling in this hell of a class. So much so, we've decided to get a tutor before we fuck up our GPA."

"It can't be _that_ bad." Emily jokingly laughs.

Sydney's eyebrows shoot up and creates creases in her forehead as she stared up at Emily with a cock of her head. "….It's _that_ bad."

Before either of them had the chance to speak, there was a loud slam from the hallway that made them both look to the back of the class where the door was.

"Wait…. _shit._ Is this the right building?" a male voice is heard with female voice replying back.

"Yes, I told you this already."

"Where is the class then? We passed the 260's already."

"No, we didn't. It's down the hall, dumbass."

Emily shifts her crossed arms to placing her hands stretched out to by her sides when a few seconds went by and two more undergraduates enter the room.

"Hello, welcome." Emily greets the two with another pleasant smile. "Have a seat anywhere you'd like."

"Why are you guys so loud?" Sydney's disapproving, tight face shakes her head as the female student pulled up a seat on the left of her.

"Because Ben's an idiot." she flips her hair over her shoulders and swings her backpack onto the table. Ben stares at Emily as he dragged a chair out next to the girl he came in with.

" _You're_ our tutor?" he asked in a surprised yet curious tone. His eyes scale her frame in her red long-sleeved sweater and black slim-fit jeans as her dark brown hair that she wore with an extra wave fell down her shoulders.

"Yes." Emily answered as she lightly rocked on her heels. "I'm Emily. I believed I talked to you on the phone last week…?" she trails off with her eyes falling on the student next to Sydney.

"Oh, no." the girl waved her off as she removed her books from her backpack. "I didn't plan this. It was another friend who put this together."

Emily presses her lips together with head nod, now holding her hands behind her back. "Right. And what are your guys' name?"

"I'm Shana. That's Ben." the student introduces herself along with her friend who still kept his eyes on her with no sense of subtleness. Emily, however, ignored the attention.

"Sydney, Shana, and Ben. Great."

"And entering Mr. Khan, the royalty among the peasants." a deep and taunting voice catches Emily off guard with her sights swinging to the doors just to see two more students entering – a guy with a Burger King bag in one hand and a drink in the other as he rested his arm of the shoulder of a girl who sipped on her drink through a straw, holding a Burger King as well.

"Did you get me the double bacon cheeseburger?" Ben turns and watches the two make their way into the classroom.

" _No_. Why would I?" the guy scoffed as if Ben had asked him the stupidest question of the day.

"I texted you to pick it up for me since you were going that way."

"I didn't check my phone so looks like tough shit, Coogan."

"That's bullshit. I saw that you read my message."

"And I'm telling you I didn't. Plus, you should be the last person asking for favors-"

"Guys, can you _not_?" the girl hangs her bag on the back of her chair with her things neatly placed in front of her. She takes the seat on the right side of Sydney as the male student occupies the chair next to the girl, all five of them sitting together in a line. Emily and her make eye contact as she comfortably scoots herself closer to the table, looking up at her apologetically,

"I'm sorry. These two have no manners or understanding of formalities apparently."

"That's okay." Emily casually dismissed. "I'm in the process of learning names."

"Well, I'm Noel Khan." Noel pipes up at the opportunity of having the floor.

"Noel." Emily mentally makes the note before her eyes fall back on the girl with a point of her finger. "And _you_ must be the one I spoke to on the phone."

"Yes." the student confirmed with easy and gentle smile towards Emily. "Alison DiLaurentis."

Emily's nerves seem to melt a tad while Alison beams causes her to smile herself.

"Okay, Sydney, Shana, Ben, Noel, and _Alison_. Perfect group we have here." Emily clasps her hands together as she stood before her new tutoring group. She steps back, giving them the chance to see the white board with her name as she begins the session.

"Allow me to introduce myself a bit now that we're all here. My name is Emily Fields. I graduated here from Yale back in 2015 with a degree in Neuroscience and a minor is Computer Science and now am currently enrolled at the graduate school to further my education and hopefully become a Biomedical Engineer."

A couple students give an impressed raised eyebrow as Emily lays out her credentials. She certainly didn't look like someone who would want to be an engineer of any sort.

"I honestly love science and it's the sole reason I want to help you guys. Science really isn't that bad of a subject once you understand the fundamentals. Everything around us has to do with science. _Even your degrees_." she glances past each student with a smirk as she rubbed her hands together. "I can bet you that no matter what you're studying – it has science to keep it pushing."

Her sights fall on the girl she so happened to stand directly in front of.

"Shana. What are you studying?"

Shana straightens her back at the sudden attention shift, tapping on her notebook with her purple mechanical pencil.

"Music."

" _Music_." Emily repeats with a kind grin. "In science, you learn that sound is vibration and the frequency of vibration is what creates different sounds. Have you ever listened to a song and the instruments, the melody, the vocals, give you chills or goosebumps? That's dopamine being released in your brain. _Science_. Specifically, _neuroscience_." she expressively points at Shana before she lands on someone new.

"How about you, Noel?"

"Economics. Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M. Get the money – dolla, dolla bill _y'all_." Noel raps with playful arrogance, making Ben, Shana, and Sydney chuckle at the stupidity. Emily joins in with a shake of her head because as stupid as it was, she wants to make this tutoring class light and easy. That'll be the only way these students will be receptive to learning.

"That one has science written _all_ over it." she goes to explain. "How do you know what will sell? What do you know what won't? You're studying the relationship between the consumption and production of goods, services in an environment, along with society and human behavior to determine what venue would create maximum profit. _Social science_."

Emily's finger lands on two more students.

"Sydney? Ben? What about you two?"

"Investigative medicine." Sydney responds.

"Public health for physical therapy." Ben follows after.

"I think you guys know those are self-explanatory." Emily tilts her head at them with a soft smile, gaining one back from Sydney. "Without science, those programs wouldn't exist. All three of us need each other in some way to help others."

Finally, Emily looks to the last sitting student in means of completing her point.

"What has your eye, Alison?" she asks as she comfortably leans her elbow against the grey, professor's podium. "What are you dedicating your years to studying?"

"Film & Media. Doubt you can find science in there." Alison purposely challenges Emily with squinted eyes and a half smile that looked up to no good. Everyone looks from Alison to Emily with now interest to hearing Emily's comeback; to see if she had in-fact debunked Emily's theory. This, although, Emily liked. She liked being put to the test and forced to prove herself.

"A tough one…..film." Emily bites the inside of her bottom lip as she looks up to the off-white, tiled ceiling. There is a brief silence as the students awaits Emily's reply. Alison's smugness was subtle as she took a sip of her Frappuccino, the victorious smile resting all in her eyes.

"Actually, film studies is _all about_ science." Emily speaks up after a few long seconds, pushing herself off the podium. "Aren't you learning about movement? Light? Color? Photography, perspective, and things of that nature? Understanding how things flow together…. _aesthetics_ …and just overall making a connection with your audience?"

"Yes. _It's an art_." Alison confirms but stating her opinion in a matter-of-factly tone right after, correcting Emily in a reminder.

"It's an art but how do you know what _exactly_ you have to do to make your audience experience the emotions you want them to experience?" Emily takes slow steps towards the undergraduates' table but in Alison's direction, specifically.

"How did Kevin Bacon in the 2004 movie, "The Woodsman" play a convicted child molester, yet, made the audience sympathize with him? A grown man who likes children, the most _disgusting, abysmal_ feature you can find in someone. How did he bring to life a character that you would like to stone…..to someone you almost feel bad for?"

Alison stares at Emily, who is gradually getting closer to her, with no kind of rebuttal. This allows Emily to continue as she speaks informedly with her hands.

"You have to tweak the lighting a certain way, angle the camera for a particular visual, have a certain soundtrack playing in the background to allow your viewers to aboard a journey outside themselves. _Yes_ , it's an art but understanding how people operate, perfecting the knowledge of their behavior and how to manipulate it in the way you want it at the drop of a tear….." Emily brings her fingers together for a crisp and loud snap that emphasized her words in as she looks directly into Alison's eyes with a 'last laugh' kind of smile.

"…. _That's science_."

Alison silently holds her stare at Emily as she and her maintained what felt like intense yet dramatic eye contact within the absolute silence of the classroom. Alison's stare wasn't an annoyed stare or even an intimidated stare because she was just attested wrong in front of her friends, but a stare that flicked a glimmer of something within her ocean blue eyes. The kind of ocean where the waters are so clear that you can see the floor but from afar it radiates a pure and heart-warming blue that puts you in a wave of excitement. Emily slowly backs up, breaking the contact while Alison continued to intriguingly watch her, and moves back to the podium where she picks up her copy of their class' textbook.

" _So_ ," she cracks open the book with a clearing of her throat. "Which section are you guys currently on?"


	2. Chapter 2: Partners of the Night

**I just want to say a big, whooping** _ **thank you**_ **for the support of this story just within the first chapter! I see this fic as my little baby and can't wait to see how it blossoms. With such a touchy subject as it is, I can only hope I can do it justice while bringing forth a new world for you guys!**

 **Enjoy this little treat!**

CHAPTER #2: Partners of the Night

 _Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action._ **Bolded is a flashback.** (….) is an indication that time has passed.

"It's been a couple of weeks since the first day of this new tutoring session came and went and god…it feels like I signed up for another fucking course."

"What's wrong with it?"

"What's not wrong with it? Its science entangled with math and compounds and….numbers. The reason I paid for this tutor was to alleviate my pains with the course but it just feels like I got another lecturer going just as hard as my original professor that I need _help_ from."

"I'm _so_ glad I decided not to go to college." Hanna boasts proudly. "I'm pretty sure I would have dropped out in the first semester."

"What's your tutor's name again?" Aria's voice pops into the conversation.

"Emily Fields." Alison informs her as she skims through her different set of mascaras until she comes across her Maybelline falsies. Standing in front of a mirror on the wall of her dorm room with her phone on speaker, she unscrews the cap, pumping the brush several times before she starts applying them to her lashes.

"If I'm not mistaking, I think she's friends with Ezra."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure I heard him mention that they're both were going to try tutoring this year but it was a one-time thing that he brought it up. That reminds me, I'm staying over Ezra's tonight and there's a chance my new laptop is coming in today so if you can put it in my room? I'll get it to tomorrow."

"Okay." Finishing her eyes, Alison stations her mascara back in its organized location and looks over her freshly made up face, making sure everything is perfectly done. "But I'm still trying to figure out a way to do this."

"You can put it on my desk, its fine."

"No, I meant the whole Noel situation." Alison corrects her. She picks up a lip crayon and goes to put it on when she noticed how dull it was. She grabs her pencil sharpener and begins twisting to get to a point she was satisfied with.

"It's easy to break off things with him but we're going to be seeing each other so frequently afterwards. I don't actually care about ending it but I really don't have time for awkward moments."

"What did you even see in him?" Hanna's disgusted grimace could be practically heard over the phone.

"It's not like we made it exclusive or anything. It was basically a trial run. A test drive." Alison mutters as she glides on her matte mulberry nude lip color. "We just went out a couple times, nothing more. I liked how good he is with numbers and how proficient he is when it comes to money whether it's saving it or how to double it. He's someone you want around when it comes to investments and being up on the latest information. Not to mention he's basically doing my math work."

"Investments?" Hanna repeats with immense doubt. "It's not like he's going to tell you which stock is going to be the next Apple or Microsoft and that you should invest in it."

"I mean, he could. You never know." Aria defends on his behalf.

Alison presses her lips together to spread the color evenly before she pokes her mouth to check out she looked. Satisfied with her choice, she stacks the lip crayon back in her collection.

"It's just that he can be so damn immature sometimes. It's like he never left high school and it's so tiring to be around."

"So, how are you going to do it?" Aria asks.

"Just say I'm in a place where things are not going to work relationship wise because I'm focusing all my attention on my studies. Or whatever bullshit they say in the movies." she fluffs her loose curls in place, teasing and splitting her hair down the middle. "But I need to get this over with before he gets any ideas like us being a couple or something."

…

"So, going back to what we were talking about earlier-" Emily swiftly erases the whiteboard with a few hurried strokes. Pushing her glasses up with her index finger, she pops open two different colored markers. "The anhydroglucose unit, also known as AGU, refers to a single sugar molecule in a polymer. Each anhydroglucose unit is reduced to its functional groups which is three hydroxyl groups per AGU."

Leaning her head against the palm of her hand, Alison quietly sighs, tapping her pencil against her notebook. Her eyes glances over to the right to Shana's side and noticed almost the entire page being covered in a neat and organized fashion, following Emily's exact notes with apparent ease. She lifts her head and casually stretches, turning her sights to the left with Sydney's notebook appearing similar to Shana's: a full page of notes. Alison takes a peep down at her own work and sees how she barely made it halfway in her book before she started absent-mindedly drawing cartoon-like smiley faces.

 _Fuck._

"So, to keep this relatively simple, the polymers of glucose, like the cellulose, is formed by the anhydroglucose molecule that has lost the elements of water that is –H and –OH." Emily starts drawing out a visual of the chemical compound to aid her explanation. "That's why anhydroglucose is used to describe the polymers of glucose. Cellulose is formed from D-glucose units which is condensed through 14 glycosidic linkages which looks like…. _this_."

Stepping away from the board to let everyone see the figure she created, she hops back into frame again for a quick breakdown as she grabs a third colored marker and labels the link accordingly.

"The beginning section will always be known as _the non-reducing end_. This is the _cellulose unit_ , this is the _anhydroglucose unit_ , and this at the end is known as the _reducing end_. Pretty easy to remember."

Emily looks out towards the students who were silently glancing between the board and their notebooks to copy all that she's written out. She takes a look at her wrist to check for the time when she sees that their two hours were about up as the clock ticks at 6:58pm.

"Alright, so if there aren't any questions about anything we covered today, we can call it a night." she smiles at the undergrads. Everyone starts packing up as Emily awkwardly juggles the handful of markers and whiteboard eraser she had in her hands before she put them away. Alison sluggishly closed her books and slid her supplies into her bag while everyone around her starts getting out of their seats. She makes brief eye contact with Noel who sat at the far end of the table, however, he pushes in his chair and walks away without any words being spoken.

It wasn't long until the classroom emptied out with just Alison being left. She slings her bag onto her shoulder, watching Emily erase the board clean with the help of a spray, debating on whether she should bring up this issue she's facing.

Finishing the removal of all her work, Emily turns around to see Alison standing idle as if she was waiting for her acknowledgement.

"Hey, Alison. Can I help you with anything?" she asks dusting her hands.

"I, uhm… I have a concern with these tutoring sessions." Alison bluntly speaks which pulls an almost startled expression out of Emily.

"Am I going too fast? I'm so sorry. This is my first teaching gig and I try to break it down in a language we all can understand. I'll slow down if you'd like." Emily ends up rambling beyond what she wanted to say as she's already apologizing for a mistake she's doesn't know the details of.

Alison shakes her head to stop her. "It's not about the speed. It's more of just retention and grasping the concept. What we're learning now, everyone else gets it and I don't want to hold up the group because I'm still not understanding what is being explained."

"Aren't they your friends?" Emily crosses her arms as she steps over to a nearby stool and props herself onto the seat. "I'm pretty sure they won't jump you if you ask for clarification."

"They're not my _actual_ friends. Not in that sense anyways." Alison explains. Emily gives her a surprised brow raise which prompts Alison to define more in-depth. "Well, let me rephrase...we all are acquaintances in the same class. Most of them already have an established friendship but we all just so happened to be in the same class and created this circle to help  
each other with work. The only person I know is Shana but that's because we're childhood friends."

" _Oh_. I was under the impression that you and Noel were dating. I mean that's what I thought, anyways."

"No, we're not together. That was us just being friendly."

Emily slowly nods her head as she processes the information of Alison and Noel _just being_ _friendly_ when some of the actions they shared appeared to be more _than just being_ _friendly._

"Right." she looks up at Alison with a tight-lipped smile.

"So, that brings me to the question that I have now - If it would be possible for an extra private session to help me more in depth with everything." Alison steadily trots on her new proposition, optimistic that Emily will respond the way she hopes.

"Uhm….yeah." Emily uncrosses her arms, momentarily looking off to the side in brief thought before she rubbed her hands on her slim-fit jeans. "Yeah, I can do that. It would be extra, though..." she slightly grimaces.

 _Dammit_ , Alison mentally curses. Her plan was that Emily wouldn't bring up the talk of more money being added but, of course, it's one of the first things that enters the conversation. Looks as if it was time for Plan B: negotiation.

"I'm already paying almost 20 an hour. I'm not _that_ far behind to the point of breaking away from this session with another. I really just need extra clarification, that's all. I mean, this is like learning a foreign language. It's pretty hard to fully get on the first time around. Or the second." she forces a chuckle to possibly lighten her demand, in hopes that Emily will understand her plight.

Alison gives her a heartening smile as Emily stares back at her with a twisted mouth off to the side, biting on the inside of her bottom lip. There is an awkward silence between the two as Alison stands in front of Emily waiting for an answer. An answer that swings in her favor.

"Okay." Emily politely caves in. "We can do that. Free of charge."

A wave of relief flows through Alison's body as she releases a quiet exhale after unknowingly holding her breath. She bows her head, graciously. "Thank you so much. I really appreciate this."

"No problem. You passing your class is my main priority." Emily slouches with her head tilted onto her shoulder. "When do you want to start?"

"...Tonight is fine with me." Alison readily replies without much hesitation. However, where Alison was prepared, Emily was not.

"Right now?"

" _Mhmmm_. If that's okay with you."

"Uhh…." Emily stands up from her stool a little too quickly, almost knocking it over with a kick of her white, low top canvas shoes. Catching the stool from wobbling and adjusting herself accordingly, she stands with her hands behind her back, nodding repeatedly. "Okay. We can start now."

With a spin to turn back to her seat, Emily's eyes catches the small lift of the ends of Alison's dark red, school, plaid skirt. Her sight trails down to her black thigh-high socks with the flats she wore that left a space of skin where the short skirt ended and the brim of the socks began. She quickly diverts her face to look away before she was caught staring inappropriately. She definitely doesn't want to be one of _those_ tutors.

Alison pulls out her chair in the center of the horizontal table and lays her bag on top, retaking out all her books and writing utensils. Completing her outfit of the evening with a beige, cable knit sweater under her open, cranberry blazer, Alison flips her hair over her shoulder as she drew out a small cosmetic bag she had carried around with her.

"I hope you don't mind me eating." Emily remarks aloud, turning to Alison with a takeout box she packed. "I didn't have much of a lunch today."

Alison shakes her head, encouraging her as she opens her compact makeup mirror. "You're fine, don't worry. It's late anyways."

Emily thanks her and makes her way towards a microwave that luckily the professor she's borrowing the classroom from so happens to have instead of her having to walk all the way to the dining hall. As she slides her lip balm onto her lips to make sure they weren't chapping, Alison's eyes grace over her mirror to Emily standing in the corner of the room, pressing buttons on the microwave to heat up her food. The choice of double denim wasn't a bad one with the comfortable selection of jeans with a denim shirt tucked in the front and unbuttoned to show a little at the top. It said, _I'm relaxed and easy-going_ while her glasses said, _I'm teetering on the scale of "trying to look cool because I'm insecure about my appearance" and "I'm willing to work on a solo project for hours on end with a cup of coffee by my side because I'm that focused"._

A part of Alison wondered if they were real glasses or merely fake ones for Emily to make herself _appear_ smarter.

"So...what exactly are you having trouble with?" Emily asks when her meal was done, grabbing a plastic spork and a small bottle of a Naked fruit smoothie from her bag.

"Basically this entire chapter." Alison switches from her makeup to her school work as Emily walks in direction. "But to put it simply, what we were going over right now completely lost me. All these equations and having to solve them? Clueless."

" _Let's see_..." Emily pulls out a chair next to Alison, settling her stuff down to the side, and sits down with her body facing her as she peeks over at her textbook. She flips through a few pages, skimming over the words to figure out where she should begin to help.

"Thank you for this again." Alison looks at Emily, never being this close to her before. A soft, clean scent wafts from her and isn't anything but pleasant on Alison's nose. Emily turns to her with an easy grin, her big, expressive eyes catching the softness of Alison's mulberry colored lips before she swiftly locked with her glowing blue eyes.

"Let's help you understand all this mumbo jumbo, okay?"

...

Tucking her hair behind her ear, Emily finishes writing out a problem on the whiteboard and turns around to Alison who stares ahead with pencil in hand, not moving. A few long moments pass by with Emily patiently waiting for Alison to verbalize the steps of solving but it never comes.

" _Fuck!_ " Alison tosses down her pencil in frustration, putting her head in her hands. "I can't get this."

"Yes, you can, I promise." Emily reassures her softly with an empathetic frown.

"No, I can't." Alison moves her hands up from her face to smooth her hair back with a groan. "We went over this eight times."

"And we'll go over this eight more times until you do. You're focusing on the small details which is stopping you from seeing the big picture. Here-" Emily moves to another space on the board and scribbles out an alternative, less complex equation.

"You know the steps to this. Tell me what to do in order to calculate the formula mass. What's the atomic mass of Pb?"

Alison sighs and takes a glimpse down at the copy of the periodic table that was printed in her book. "207.2" she sluggishly replies.

" _Alison_." Emily looks at her, disappointingly. "We talked about this. If you answer with a negative attitude, it only makes working this out harder because you're not into it. I know you hate this but a boost in your voice will help you because your brain won't see this as a chore. Now, again, what is the atomic mass of lead?"

"207.2." Alison straightens her back, answering firmer than before and not as if she was dying.

Emily writes the number on the board underneath the new equation. "Good. What about nitrogen?"

Alison takes a moment to find the element on the table. "14.00674."

"And oxygen?"

"15.9994."

"Alright. Now with our new numbers, you can substitute them in the place of _this_ problem. What is 207.2 plus two times 14.00674 plus six times 15.9994?"

"Well, this is when a calculator comes into play because I'm not a barbarian." Alison mutters as she opens the app on her phone. Emily silently chuckles at the remark.

"The formula mass is 331.2."

"331.2, good, good." Emily writes the answer down with her blue marker.

They continue to break down the problem, step by step, with Emily allowing Alison to lead the way - sometimes having to push her in the right direction. With lots of patience and nearly twenty extra minutes of going back and forth between the practice question and the original, they arrive at the very end of the problem where Emily is hands-off and forces Alison to finish it off on her own.

"With the new rewritten equation, "u" is the total uncertainty we are trying to solve for. What is it?" she asks before she takes a sip of her drink.

"I don't know." Alison moans, huffing back into her chair, rolling up the sleeves of her sweater as her blazer rests behind her seat. "Can we call it unsuccessful night and go? It's probably like midnight by now."

"I will hold you hostage until we finish this. You are _right there_!" Emily laughs desperately with her constant shove of urging Alison to complete her work. Something she has been doing this entire private session.

"I'm not _right there_. This is difficult. I don't know these numbers, I don't know how to move them around, I don't know how to flip them, or find these _masses_ or _uncertainties_ or _concentrations_. I don't fucking know any of this. God, I should have never signed up for this class." Alison sulks as she bows her head in defeat.

Emily stares at her somberly, feeling the overwhelming air of exasperation radiating from her from where she sat. It is then when Emily grabs her stool and walks up to Alison's table, placing it right in front of her and taking a seat. Alison lifts her head just when Emily removes her glasses, folds them, and rests them on her lap. She gazes right into Alison's eyes.

"Don't think about the problem." she orders her gently. "Literally. Don't think about anything regarding it."

"Are those real glasses?" Alison asks curiously with a sense of naiveté in her voice.

" _Alison-_ "

"Sorry. You said not to think about the problem..."

Emily fights the urge to smile at the cuteness of the random moment as she tries keeps a serious facade.

"Listen to me. The range can be calculated with the propagation of error method using the equation we labeled as C. We rewrote it with by replacing the total uncertainties with the relative uncertainties. With substituting, how do we find the total uncertainty?"

Staring back at Emily with a pout, Alison lets the wheels in her head turn as she thinks only about what Emily asks of her. They stay silent as she takes a glimpse at her notebook where she copied all the problems from the board that they worked on. She turns a page back to where they solved a previous step and skimmed for certain numbers.

"We need to substitute 1 over 5195 for RE-B...1 over 2500 for RE-VF500...1 over 7692 for RE-T and... 1 over 1250 for RE-VT100." Alison begins explaining the phases.

" _Yes_. And then what?"

"Then...it should come out to..." Alison returns to her calculator app again, looking back and forth between the equation and the numbers to simulate the math problem. "9.2 times 10 to the power of negative four."

Emily jumps up from the stool, grabbing her glasses and tossing them onto her face as she strides it quickly to the whiteboard, writing the numbers Alison gave her.

"And then times 100, the uncertainty would be in the final concentration of...?" she eagerly waits for Alison to do the calculations.

"The uncertainty would be in the final concentration of 130.0 parts per minute."

"And if you take the ppm and times it by 0.09 over 100...?!"

"The uncertainty in the final concentration is...plus-minus 0.1, making the concentration range 130.0 ppm plus-minus 0.1 ppm."

" _BOOM_!" writing and circling the answer, Emily drops the marker, raising both arms in the air. "She did it, ladies and gentlemen. She actually did it!"

Alison self-congratulates herself, clapping her hands together when Emily strolls up to her with her hand extended.

"I told you you'll get it!" she high-fives her with a genuinely excited smile.

"Ugh, there was no way in _hell_ I was going to get this during the group session." Alison begins putting her stuff away, internally glad that this was finally over.

"Don't _ever_ be afraid to ask questions." Emily reminds her. "You _are_ paying for this tutoring. That's why I'm here. Might as well get your money's worth. Work me until you squeeze every drop of information you can out of me." she jokingly laughs as Alison smirks at the comment and stands up, stretching out her arms and legs by rising to the tip of her toes.

Emily checks down at her watch the see the time a little over 9:30pm and turns to clean off the board after another dynamic session. Alison watches her as she throws on her blazer and fixes her hair. The smirk remains on her face when she drops her eyes to the floor.

"I actually like this way better to tell you the truth…" she speaks. "The personalized attention and pacing? Maybe I should do these kinds of sessions instead…"

Emily puts the markers and eraser away and leans against the professor podium with a light and blissful face. "I'm here for whatever choice you make, Alison. The goal here is to exceed your expectations and to prove to you that science is not thatbad."

" _Hm_." Alison pokes out her lips in thought as she straps her bag onto her shoulder and begins walking slowly towards the door.

"You know you don't have to be all formal and call me Alison, by the way. Staying out late studying and eating..." she points the garbage where the takeout box found itself after an hour of its initial opening. "What was that again?"

" _Ethiopian food_." Emily gladly informs her, smiling.

"Studying late with Ethiopian food...I think we're past that level of formalities." she reaches the door, pressing her body against the frame as the corner of her lips crease upwards with a twinkle in her eyes.

"You can call me Ali."

Emily nods, accepting the new permission. She goes to officially end their session with a goodbye but something was dying to come out of her. She knows she shouldn't bring it up and just leave it alone but it came to attention the moment she made notice with it the way she did. She fought herself harshly within those three seconds of silence.

"Can I ask you a question, _Ali_?" Emily emphasis the nickname tauntingly.

"Only if I can ask you a question in return." Alison innocently challenges back.

 _Do NOT ask, Emily. It is none of your business. Say goodnight and keep it moving._

"Don't..." she begins, "Don't you think it's a _little_ cold to be wearing an outfit like that?" the curious part of herself pushes through all reason as she lazily points to Alison's ensemble that was a mixture between class and playfulness.

Alison glances down at her outfit, mostly at the short plaid skirt and thigh-high socks that she specifically picked out to wear. Her smile goes from polite to more devious as she slightly twists her body side to side.

"I have thick blood. This cold doesn't bother me too much."

Amused with the response, Emily chuckles with a squinted eye. "You know the viscosity of our blood has nothing to do with how we experience the temperature, right?"

"Possibly." Alison casually shrugs. "What scent are you wearing?"

Caught off guard with her bold return question, Emily's smile is wiped off and replaced with nervousness.

" _Uhm_...Jennifer Lopez's Glow. It's one of those skinny tubes you buy to test it. You know, to see how it works."

Alison pursed her lips, cocking her head to the side with a face that was unreadable from afar. "I like it. It's calming...sexy...but not overpowering. It fits you nicely."

Emily is struck with the compliment and suddenly unable to come back with anything but a timid grin that made her drop her eyes and look elsewhere.

On that note, Alison taps the tips of her fingers on the door-frame. "Good night, Emily. See you next week."

Emily nods, looking back up at her as she pushed herself off the door. "Good night, Ali. Drive safe."

She stands there while Alison departs the room until she hears the building's nearest exit door open and close, leaving her all alone. She spins on her heels towards her open bag with her tongue pressed in her cheek.

"Calming and sexy..." she repeats to herself, shaking her head at the choice of words. Stuffing all her belongings where they needed to be, she grabs everything she brought with her and heads to the door herself, causally making sure the room was as clean as she got it.

"And the award for breakout science-problem solver goes to..." Emily whispers to herself as she nears the light switch. "Alison DiLaurentis!" she mimics the sound of a roaring crowd as she _flips_ off the ceiling lights blacken the room.

 **Private Emison sessions? Is it just me or were there a few unspoken moments between them tonight? What do you think each other were thinking? We are chugging along here, folks.**

 **Also, don't hesitate to share this story among your fellow Emisonians. Just because PLL is over doesn't mean the stories have to stop. I'm pretty sure there are some starving shippers out there with no acknowledge of this, and other, stories that are still being updated. Be that saving grace in their deprived lives and share it with them.**

 **Remember: Emison is love. Emison is life.**


	3. Chapter 3: Surprise Me

**Good day, people. I see your feedback and I appreciate each and every single one of them, small and long. Most of you know my game – how I like to keep this line of interaction between author and reader. Keep your thoughts and rambles coming. To the guest reviewer who has their skepticism with G!p fics, I have to say I totally hear you. I can safely say that I, too, get annoyed by the unrealistic "clichés" of them and do** _ **not**_ **plan on this fic to mirror any of those impractical writings such as a miraculous, ruler sized peens or a distaste for the condition to, poof, disappear just because of some coddling and "wicked" blows haha. I've been planning this story out for about a year, believe it or not. I have a good solid idea of how to tackle this story in a way that's a mix between a well-rounded story and some fun times :)**

 **AM updating this story quickly after her previous update and not making us wait a month or so?! What?!**

CHAPTER #3: Surprise Me

 _Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action._ **Bolded is a flashback.** (….) is an indication that time has passed.

In the silence of the clean, public restroom, a long sigh slips out of one of the locked stalls. A zip followed by a short clang of metal rustles lightly before a roaring flush and unlocking of the stall door. Emily rolls her shoulders on her way to the sink where her black and red bag laid, nestled in the corner. She takes her time in washing her hands as she stares at herself in the mirror, making sure not one hair was out of place. Upon drying her hands, she digs into her messenger bag and pulls out her brand new, small glass bottle, draped in a JLO necklace-like pendent. Emily pops off the cap and spritz herself a few times in several areas, making sure not to overdo it. Nothing is worse than a person who bathed themselves in a scent in order to smell good.

Alison leans back into her navy blue school chair, balancing on the back two legs as she sits silently in the classroom all by herself. Her eyes glance up to the empty whiteboard where there is a small writing in red in the right hand corner.

" _Anatidaephobia is the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you."_

Alison's eyes shift to the far right where she sees a drawing of a duck head almost as if he was peeking from the corner of the board. She shakes her head with a faint smile.

As of lately since the tutoring had taken off, Emily decided to start something new. Every session she writes a science fact on the board. She never explicitly explained why she does it nor did anyone ask but it became this silent routine with every day something new being written. At first, Alison thought it was pretty cheesy and elementary-like until she found herself almost anticipating a new fact when she walked into the room. Some of them were intriguing, some were odd, and some were just funny. Like the duck Emily drew watching her.

Rocking back and forth on her unbalanced chair, Alison scrolled through an Instagram account she found during a little snoop spell she had. Jumping from mutual to mutual, digging through tags and followers, she finally came across the thing she was searching for. The page didn't have a lot of photos and there were large time gaps in between most of them but she still clicked on every picture, reading the captions and the comments that were underneath them.

"Sorry I'm late!" Emily's voice abruptly startles Alison who presses her home button in that same instant. Emily swiftly walks past Alison towards the podium as she removes her jacket.

"I came in earlier to unlock the door and whatnot but ended up having a small issue that decided it couldn't wait until the weekend to pop up."

Alison brings her chair back on four legs and locks her phone, placing it face down on the table. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine. Just some overtime work. Random things come up and you have to handle it pretty much then and there."

Alison silently accepts Emily's answer as she watches her ready herself for their session. She looks down at her table, trailing a finger across the wood.

"Ever since we changed our times opposite of the original group on Monday's and Wednesday's to Tuesday's and Friday's, I see you almost every day now." she looks up at Emily who was searching for something in particular within her bag.

"….I kind of feel bad that I have you working extra like this."

Emily laughs, her eyes still low and focused, not noticing Alison staring at her. " _Kind of_ feel bad?"

"Only because…" Alison trails off momentarily before she pulls out stapled pieces of paper from a folder she had placed by her other supplies. "I got a B on my latest quiz!"

Emily's head jerks up in shock, swatting the hair out of her face and pushing up her glasses. "Woah! A B?! That's awesome!"

"Yep. I'll take this B over my last F any day." Alison proudly lays the graded quiz beside her textbook. "That's why I say I "kind of" feel bad. While it sucks that you see me four times a week, you're helping me tremendously with this class so it's worth it."

"Oh _, come on_ , Ali." Emily groans as she closes her bag, tilting her head at Alison with a smile. "It doesn't _suck_. I don't mind seeing you this often."

An eyebrow raises from Alison as Emily approaches her. "You don't?"

"No way! Look at this!" Emily sweeps the packet into her hand as she takes a seat on the edge of Alison's table. She skims over the work with a head nod before smacking it with the back of her hand. "This is what I like. This is what hard work gets us. I'm so very proud of you, Ali."

Alison and Emily hold eye contact briefly as Emily set the paper down. Alison's pouted smile turns away to her binder that she slides into her.

"Well, I hope you're ready to work even harder because now we're in December which means….time for finals." she declares as she dramatically swings opens her binder towards a specific section that held pages and pages of highlighted notes.

" _Ah_ …" Emily hangs her head. "Finals. The sole reason of my existence here."

Alison holds up a finger. "But, to soften the load-" She moves her direction to the chair on the right of her. Her hands reach for a large, plastic tub and sets it down in front of both of them. Emily particularly confused at the sight.

"I got something for us to munch on during this process. You know, brain food."

With a perplexed grimace, Emily eyes the clear container covered with a purple lid. She sees some kind of delight inside but can't quite make out specifically what it is. This was surely odd on Alison's behalf, however. She wasn't exactly sure what to make out of this random gesture.

"What….what made you think of doing this? Exactly?" Emily folds her hands on top of her lap.

"Just because I know we tend to pull late nighters. Since I told you the last time you brought food it was okay, I figured this would be too." Alison combs the ends of her hair before she leans back into her seat, crossing her arms. "Besides, who studies without something to eat anyways? Come on."

"That's very considerate of you, Ali. Thank you." Emily genuinely appreciates.

She hesitates to touch the container, not knowing if it was her place to open it when Alison picks up slight awkward moment and sits up, peeling off the lid herself. The warm, sweet scent swirls into Emily's nose after the unveiling of baked, medium sized cinnamon rolls. Her eyes widen as if Alison showcased a row of gold to her. It's been a while since she's had one on these.

"Did you make these yourself or are these store brought?"

"Neither. My roommate made too many and begged me to get rid of it so…happy birthday. These fuckers have to go somewhere."

A laugh rumbles out of Emily in response to Alison's ever so casual and emotionless reply. However, after a few seconds, her laugh doesn't die down but, for some reason, continues on. Sitting there with a cheeks high and her eyes closed, Emily laughs harder than usual which, in turn, makes Alison crack a smile. She's not sure why she's laughing this much at a simple statement she said but it was contagious, to say the least.

Finally after a long ten seconds, Emily slows down as she wipes under her eyes, chuckling out a few more. Her smile still lingering around. "Okay….I'm sorry but that…..that was funny."

"I'm glad you thought so." Alison answers with a light in her eyes, tickled by what she just sat through.

"But, in order for us to eat this," Emily regains herself as she raises up from the table, grabbing Alison's textbook, and heads towards the board. "You have to solve some questions."

" _Ugh_." Alison loudly voices her displeasure with her head tossed back in. "That's _so_ not what I had in mind when I brought this in."

"Think of it as you being on a level and this food is your prize when you unlock a new level. This way it gives you incentive to work and not give up so easily." Emily snags a hold of her trusted markers just as Alison straightens herself and sits right side up.

"Are you calling me a quitter?" she questions with narrowed eyes. Her voice, however, was light yet challenging, opposite of sounding offended.

" _No_..." Emily drags out as she takes a slow step away from the board, popping open and close the cap of the blue marker in her hand. "But you _do_ get frustrated quickly. Which, _then_ , creates this negative idea that you can't do what's asked of you _which then_ makes you pout and moan. But no, I'm not calling you a quitter." Emily gives her a slick, half-smile that was only missing a wink.

Alison drags out a sigh. "I haven't really eaten yet today, so-" her face falls to pleased from somber along with her voice lowering to a soft mumble, dropping her eyes as she fidgets with her feet under the table.

Emily's smile fades as she observes Alison's change in demeanor. She squeezes the cap onto the marker, tapping the end against her palm while she bites her inner cheek.

"…Okay, _maybe_ we can start off with having a few bites. Just to use as fuel." she caves.

As if someone yelled out "cut scene!" in the distance, Alison flips her hair over her shoulder, her gratified smile accompanying as she rolls up her sleeves.

"Smart idea. That sounds _much_ more reasonable." Alison grins at her as she pulled out of stack of napkins from her purse.

Emily's eyes dart back and forth in confusion as Alison greedily takes one of the cinnamon rolls onto her napkin. She shakes her head with her jaw pushed out to the side, feeling like she got played somehow by that little act. She lets it slide and walked up to the table, dragging her stool behind her so she can get a least half of a roll.

"Your roommate didn't lace this with pot or anything, did she?" Emily inspects a piece she ripped that was still warm to the touch, bringing it to eye level as if she was supposed to notice a visible difference.

" _Yeah_." Alison nods as she took a large bite of it, licking the cream from the corner of her mouth. "I _totally_ brought pot cinnamon rolls so we can get high while studying for this final. Maybe it'll open up my third eye and I'll be able to absorb all this information in one night so I won't have to go through the torturous hell of having to memorize this shit."

"Hey, I'm just asking! Who knows what you kids do to numb yourselves, nowadays." Emily comments before she popped the baked good into her mouth.

…

The time ticks on by rather quickly while they both studied their asses off for the night. Emily methodically picks apart Alison's study guide, making an organized plan of her own to make sure they focus on every single subject needed to go over. While some was easier than others, most of the contents on the guide was like starting from block one since majority of the material came from earlier in the semester. Material that Alison had little to no understanding after all this time.

Night after night passes with their frequent schedule as they work privately one evening then studying final material with the group the next just to have their own time again the night after. It became almost a ritual walking into the open classroom every day at 7pm just to memorize nothing but equations and formulas. However, while that was one almost daily routine, something else started to cross into the waters of normalcy.

The night Alison brought her "brain food" to accompany them while they studied, at their following session, Emily brought in a snack of her own to share - practically like a repayment for last time. Then the subsequent private session, Alison brought in another delicate and before they knew it, they created a habit of bringing food in for each other while they worked towards acing this winter final.

"We're almost done. A few more things we need to perfect but after that, we do the practice test, fix whatever from that point and you're set for the big test." Emily closes the packet, opening her legs at a comfortable spacing as she rests her back into her chair. "I think you got it."

Facing each other in their close proximity, Emily and Alison sit at the table with a container filled with hot and ready pizza rolls. This one coming from Alison. Two plastic plates with a handful of bites for each girl, they decided it was time for a small break where they could snack and not think about numbers for a good minute. They munch in silence until Alison speaks up, wanting to speak on something that's been on her mind for a while now.

"We've been on this for what? Two weeks now? Monday through Thursday, back to back to back to back."

"We have." Emily nods.

"This might be off topic but-" Alison reaches for her water bottle as she keeps a steady eye on Emily. "We've been doing _this_ for about a month."

"Mhmm…"

"And I literally know nothing about you. Don't you think that's weird?"

Emily cocks her head to the side as she swallows her roll. "You see that to be weird?"

"Yes, I do." Alison responds back firmly.

"Why?"

"Because I like to know the kind of people I'm surrounded by and/or involved with. Know something about who they are. With you? All I know is that your name is Emily Fields, you graduated from here, currently at the grad school, and you love science. I mean, that's basic information that you'd tell your dentist when he's trying to make small talk before telling you that you need a root canal."

Emily can't help but silently chuckle as Alison takes a swallow of her water. Being with Alison in the short time that she has, she quickly grew to learn that she was very sarcastic, sometimes shelling out deadpan humor. She has to constantly keep on her toes to figure out which emotion she was playing on.

"You don't believe in the line of professionalism?" Emily asks with a simple shrug. "Keeping work and private business separate?"

"I'm work to you?" Alison tests Emily with a hardened, unreadable face. Another example of Emily having to sort out the diction in her voice and body language to get an idea how she truly feels – whether she's offended or curious. She goes for the latter.

"Very much so." Emily reaches forward and grabs a handful of pizza rolls and adds it unto her empty plate that held nothing but crumb remains. "You are paying me a set income where I work _for_ you. We are doing a straightforward transaction of exchanging services for currency. That's work. It's a rule of thumb to never mix the two."

"You follow life by its rules?"

"Not always but it's good to have some kind of blueprint of what you should and shouldn't do. Especially when it comes to business."

Alison stares at her for a moment, almost as if she was trying to understand her based on her replies. "I'm not asking you to lay out your entire biography from the time you were born up until what you did today. I'm just asking to know one thing about you."

" _One thing_?" Emily echoed as just tossed two rolls in her mouth.

Alison nods. "One thing. Something I wouldn't know just by looking at you."

She places her water bottle back on the table and prepares herself with a cross of her legs and a squint of her eyes to be shocked in some way, although knowing it's most likely going to be something vanilla and predictable. She props her elbow on the table beside as her hand lightly rests on her cheek. Waiting.

Emily looks up to the ceiling as she sluggishly chewed. There were a plethora of things she could pull out of her magician's hat but which one was worthy enough to knock the first brick of her high and guarded wall of privacy? So, she lets the seconds move on by as she debates herself.

"Well….way back…..I used to play an instrument." Emily finally speaks, looking down at Alison.

"An instrument." Alison repeats with a small head cock.

" _Yep_."

"…What instrument?"

"Guess." A smile creeped onto Emily's face as it was her to turn to challenge Alison for a change.

Alison's index finger rhythmically taps her cheekbone as she truly gazed at Emily, this time taking her appearance and attributes and trying to play connect the dots in the terms of music. It was almost like guessing what breed of dog someone has just by looking at them. Sometimes you can guess someone's a Labrador kind of person but how do you correctly guess a crazy gym buff that owns a Chihuahua? Alison glazed from Emily's hair to her shoes, trying to come up with something before she actually guessed.

"The flute." she predicted confidently. However, all that confidence gave her was a laugh in the face. Emily's smile blows into a full face grin as she cackled. Alison, though, wasn't laughing this time.

" _The flute?_ " Emily giggles. "Not at all. Why would you guess that?"

Alison looks away, not really amused at being laughed at in the manner she was. She picks apart one of her pizza rolls on her white Dixie plate. "I dunno. You have long fingers and I figured that was something you probably played. Was that really a stretch of the imagination?"

"Oh, no." Emily jerks forward, wanting to place a gentle hand on Alison's knee but halfway through doing this, it didn't present itself to being a good idea – the start of being comfortable touching students. No matter how innocent it might be, nicer things have been misconstrued as an ill intent. Awkwardly, she pulls back, resting her hands in her lap as she clears her throat.

"I'm sorry. You're right. That was a good educational guess. But not the flute. I actually played the drums."

Alison snaps her attention up at Emily, stopping her chewing completely. "Drums?" she asked as if she didn't quite hear what she said. "You don't seem like the type who would play the drums."

"You said something you wouldn't know just by looking at me." Emily smirks back at her victoriously.

Alison finishes her chewing with a small flick of her eyebrow. "Most people pick up guitar lessons when they want to play something."

"I tried but never really got into it. I always felt awkward with the hand placements and it just didn't drive the emotions I wanted to push out. But with the drums?" Emily blows out a stream of air as she shakes her head. "You have the ability to go wild. And plus it was an awesome way to vent and let off aggression."

"You had a lot of aggression growing up?" Alison causally asks.

Emily bites down on her bottom lip, glancing down at her plate to grab another pizza roll. "Eh. Nothing more than your average teenage angst." she responds.

"….Somehow I don't believe you."

Emily peeks up and all of a sudden felt as if she was put under a spotlight. All her movements ceased at just the skeptic tone in Alison's voice, causing her stare at her as if she was caught red-handed.

"You and drums." Alison nods at her. "I can't see it."

Emily let out a silent exhale, not realizing she was holding her breath for that brief moment. Making up from what she believes is probably obvious discomfort, she forces out a light laugh to cover it up. "I don't know why not. What would I gain from lying?"

Alison shrugs her shoulders, with a sly smile threatening to peep at the corners of her mouth. "Maybe trying to impress me."

" _Ha_." Emily exhales out. She side-eyes Alison through her narrowed sights, however, Alison stands her ground with pursed, taunting lips. Emily sweeps a few pizza rolls and tosses them into her mouth before she dusts off her hands, sliding two of Alison's black pens towards her.

Getting a good grip on the pens, Emily begins a gradual beat, switching between the pens and the bottom of her of palm in rhythmic thumps to create different sounds. Tapping lightly her foot with her head nodding, her speed picks up with the flick of her wrists, now adding the slashing sound the tip of the pens across the table wood and beating on the corner of Alison's textbook a part of her little routine. Alison watched on pleasantly surprised at this demonstration, her eyes following every movement of Emily's hands. Emily only continues on for a good extra twenty seconds before she finishes, twirling the pens, effortlessly in her fingers with a triumphant beam.

Alison slowly claps at her mini performance. If Emily wasn't trying to impress her before, she truly did just now. " _Well, well, well_. I stand corrected. You're pretty good with your fingers, it seems like."

"I know how to work and keep a tempo." Emily taps her temple with a wink. "Science."

"You know what they say about drummers…" Alison can't help but smile slickly at her trailed off statement. Emily, however, looks onto her, waiting for her to finish the sentence.

"What?" she naïvely asks after them playing the silent game for a moment.

"….That they're natural born leaders….because they are the ones responsible for keeping everyone on beat." Alison makes an awkward save with the topic switch right on time after the joke bombing.

"Right!" Emily completely agrees as she sets the pens down. "I know a lot of people like to downplay the role of drummers as if they're are idiots and easily replaceable but, in my opinion, it's more complex than that."

Alison listens on, nodding her head to what Emily is going on about but can't stop herself from wondering how Emily let that more than apparent innuendo go over her head without another thought. That was like setting up a game where the server whacks the ball but the other person doesn't move a muscle to hit the ball at all, letting it zoom right past them.

"-I took it up back in middle school and by high school, I was in this little band."

Alison's attention was suddenly captured again. "You? In a band? Okay, I _have_ to hear this one." she crosses her arms with an amazed look of disbelief.

"It was little." Emily laughs, waving Alison's expectations down. "And local. It was more on the low than anything. Just a couple of friends I knew who also happened to play instruments, as well. I was drums, there was a guy who played the violin, a girl on piano, and twin boys on the guitar and bass. The girl on the piano would sing and sometimes the guys on guitar would join her."

"You guys made your own songs or-?"

"Not like that. We mostly did covers and then sometimes when we're all up to it, we would work on something original. We weren't looking to become full-time musicians or anything. It was just something we took up that we enjoyed doing. Taking our minds off the negative things in our lives and turning it into something fun."

 _That was twice_ , Alison mentally noticed Emily's choice of words describing her past for the second time within the span of this conversation. Aggression and now negative. She picks up a roll and begins to chew on it, choosing not to input her two cents on this discovery but rather moving the topic along.

"Did you ever perform for a crowd or record anything?" she questions.

"Yeah, we recorded pretty much all our work. We would perform for friends and family, you know, little stuff like that." Emily unexpectedly stands up, walking away from the table and to her bag at the professor's podium. "This band wasn't like an everyday practice thing because, like I said, it was more for fun than a legitimate hustle. But, when talking about performances, we once did at our school."

"How did that go?"

"Excuse my language but it was pretty fucking awesome." she laughs as she pulled out an unopened bottle of lemonade from her messenger. "Definitely a top three moment in my life where I felt alive."

"Well, don't clam up on the details now." Alison sits forward, attentively watching Emily arrive back at the table to take her seat. "Tell me about it."

Emily grimaces as she cracks open her drink. "Maybe some other time, we should really get ba-"

"I'm not gonna do one goddamn problem until you tell me this story." Alison asserts herself firmly and clearly, catching Emily square in her eyes.

Emily holds their stare, her head tilted to the side, trying to maintain her control of being the one who makes the rules and not the other way around.

" _Alison_."

" _Emily_." Alison mocked her head tilt with her own.

There is a silent stare down that Alison clearly wasn't back down from as she waited. As much as Emily wanted to put her foot down and say no, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Particularly because she knew how serious Alison probably was about not doing any of her work. She's pretty much perfected the act of being stubborn when it comes to problem solving and she didn't want to have to go against a defiant Alison for the rest of their session.

" _Fine_. But really quick." Emily surrenders. She takes a swig of her lemonade as Alison grins to herself, satisfied by winning this battle.

"Okay, the timeline is at the end of my sophomore year of high school back in….about 2009. I've been playing the drums for a good while now and I'm already in the small band at this time with my friends. My school would do these little events like dances and fairs to typically raise money for whatever is needed at that time. So, the student government convinced the school to host this "spirit week" kind of ordeal to raise money for the prom that year for the seniors and to hype up one of the most anticipated track meets coming up." she explains.

"Some schools have a monopoly on football, some basketball, but my school would go nuts over track & field because we were pretty much untouchable in that sport compared to the others. That streak of winning made a lot of other schools jealous which then would cause rivalries. And if you know teens, you know they love more than showing off and being competitive."

Alison agrees with that sentiment, knowing more than her share of what high school is like seeing that she just graduated not too long ago.

"So, that entire week was spirit week and Friday was basically this fun day where, after school, there was a barbeque and whatever. On that Friday, we're supposed to be celebrating our runners and field members to get them pumped up for the meet on Saturday. Did I lose you yet?"

"Nope." Alison responds. Her interest level was peaked at 100% as Emily talked. Out of everything that has happened that day, Emily's fun fact of playing the drums has taken the cake of surprise. She would have _never_ guessed but here they were. And now she wants to know exactly where this story was going to take her.

"Alright. So, during this fun day, they had music playing, little games happening on the side, they had some water activities, it was pretty cool. They also had this stage where they had the DJ playing his music but they also used it for a "Got Talent" type of show they had planned. So, during the fun day, they dedicated like an hour to it. At this point, the show has been done and everyone is doing their own thing. I'm hanging with my friends, not really doing much, and one of them noticed how the stage was still up with the instruments from one of the acts."

"I think I see where this is going." Alison deviously giggles, making Emily laugh along with her as well, confirming her idea of already foreseeing the future.

"After a back and forth between the group, arguing about what we're going to do, the twins were all for this scheming idea and they had a friend outside our group that they told who also wanted in. Now me? I was pretty much someone who "played by the rules" and didn't like the idea of getting into trouble but I was feeling kind of daredevil-ish that day and decided _why not?_ "

"I like that." Alison slides in her comment before Emily could continue. "That's pretty much my mantra for life. _Why fucking not_?"

" _Exactly_." Emily commends her philosophy with a point of her hands. "Why not, you know? So, we snuck up to the DJ, who was this young guy, and told him our plan because we can't do anything with the props since he has the controls for the speakers and stuff. He was completely down with us being rebels so now it's the mission of doing setting up quickly before the teachers see us and stop everything. While he has his music playing, he's plugging in the amps for the guitars, the drums, and microphones. Nobody really notices because there is so much going on. But, when everything was set up, it was time for the quick switcheroo. He has to turn off his set, turn on the speakers for the instruments and we do our plan."

"Which _is_ …?" Alison sings inquisitively.

"To perform, of course." Emily grins from ear to ear as she relives this small moment of her teenage years. One that she finds herself falling onto quite often. More than she'd like to admit.

"And that's what we do. Really fast, I jump on the drum set, the boys grab the guitars, and the other dude grabs the mic in front. One of the twins start up the electric guitar with this crazy solo which came through the speaker _soooo loud._ I mean, imagine you're having a good time with your friends and all of a sudden this loud guitar riff pierces through the air. Everyone is like " _what the fuck?_ " and turns to our direction. He does this solo for like 15 seconds as this kind of startup and our adrenaline is _rushing like no other._ "

Emily starts to lose herself within her storytelling as the excitements builds up in her. Alison sees this brightening light in Emily's eyes and she can visibly tell how this event became a top three moment for her although she hasn't gotten to the meat of the story yet. She wonders what the other two are.

"Teachers are now starting to make their way to us to rip us off the stage when I click the drumsticks together and we all start playing in unison. And because we weren't stupid enough to do some unknown tune and make a fool out of ourselves, we started the intro to a well-known song to which the guy in front starts singing the hook. When I tell you that everyone rushed to the stage within that same moment, they did. A couple hundred of students now surrounding and blocking the teachers from getting to us. The chorus comes around and everyone is singing the song like it was some kind of rock concert. We all were sharing looks at each other in pure shock because of how this crazy plan actually worked. And the DJ was laughing his fucking ass off."

Emily shifts the attention to her body as she points to herself.

"So imagine a….16 year old me in these bleached, ripped jeans, a red and white baseball tee, and a backwards hat that the DJ gave me to look the part of a "badass drummer"." Emily snickers at the gesture, now two years shy of ten years since this happened.

Alison smiles at her because although she has no idea what a teenage Emily looked like, she found some way to paint a visual and it honestly wasn't half bad. She even thought that the concept of her appearance was kind of cute.

"I'm going complete ape-shit on the drums, the guys are tearing up the guitars, we're all pitching in our vocals into the microphones to help sing the chorus and hooks that the crowd was already yelling themselves. It was so surreal. _Fucking legendary_. The teachers and parents were pissed about it though, including mines."

"Why the fuck would they be pissed?" Alison snaps defensively, surprising herself a bit but dismissing it because it just showed how into the story she was. For a moment, the way Emily was explaining it, she felt like she was there experiencing it. "You guys were having a good time. Wasn't the sole reason for this whole thing to get everyone excited for the track meet? It sounds like that's exactly what you guys were doing."

"Right. But it was because of the "vulgar profanity" we were basically chanting, which was only a few, and how we "broke the rules of conduct" by "using school property without permission"." Emily overdoes her usages of air quotes with a roll of her eyes. "At first my parents were angry because of how bad the teachers made it seem. They acted as if we hijacked the instruments and were doing nothing but cursing on the speakers while there were younger kids present since it was an open event after school hours. But once I broke it down to my dad about the raw feeling of it all and how awesome it was, he ended up taking my side whereas my mom was still upset about it."

"Who did you guys perform? Because I know you said 2009 so I'm trying to remember what songs were really popular then…"

"It was a Papa Roach song." Emily opens her drink once again. "To Be Loved to be exact. It was during that weird phase of years where it seemed like everyone was heavily into rock music."

" _Papa Roach_?" Alison repeats the name with a forward lean of her neck, tensing her face as her eyebrows creased in towards each other.

Emily stops the rim of the bottle from hitting her lips because of Alison's verbal sound of either disgust or confusion, not sure which one it fell under.

"What? You've never heard of Papa Roach? They were a pretty popular band back then. You didn't have to be into rock to know of them."

" _Roach_? _Papa_ _Roach_?"

"Yes. Papa Roach."

"I've…..no. Never." Alison shakes her head with furrowed brows. "That's not really my scene."

Forgetting to even sip her lemonade, Emily sets it back down on the table, eyes now set and trained on Alison. "You never had an "emo" phase? Everyone has had an awkward rock phase before. It's usually in middle school or high school and totally cringy to think back on."

"Na uh. Not me."

"So…you've always been this pretty girl all throughout your life and in school?"

"I mean, I guess?" Alison stammers as she shrugs, not knowing how to answer the question properly.

"You've never had an "oh my gosh, burn this picture of me" time period growing up?" Emily presses on, now _her_ curiosity in Alison being piqued.

"Not really. Unless we're talking about my makeup techniques back then. If so, yes, _I've had those._ But, I've always been pretty much in one lane when it comes to social grounds."

"Hm _."_ Emily sits back, stirring on her new discovery. "….I could see that."

"But this isn't about me." Alison quickly directs the focus onto its original host so they won't deviate. "This about you crashing your school's fun Friday. Finished what happened after that."

"I mean, all in all, although we got in trouble, I honestly felt like a rock star afterwards." Emily continues as she draws her story to an end. "We had this small notoriety at my school because of it which was also awesome because I basically lived on the opposite spectrum of being popular in high school. So, yeah, that was a great point in my life. That is, until my dad got orders to move to Oregon that summer and I had to start all over again. Never felt that same kind of spark ever since, though. I kind of just….floated, not knowing where I belonged."

Emily's eyes fall to her shoes as her voice picked up a serious and somber tone to it. Nevertheless, before the change of attitude became a door to another conversation, she pipes herself back up with a smile.

"But that's when my love for science kicked up for me. I graduated, was accepted to come here, and here I am six years later. I think I did pretty good."

"I would be lying if I said I didn't want to hear this "skill" you have." Alison's blue eyes shimmered with a glint of nosy mischief. "Do you still play?"

"I used to play here and there to pass the time but not really anymore." Emily replies.

"Well, do you, at least, have any audio from back then when you did play?"

" _Maybe_." Emily twisted her nose up at Alison with a soft, knowing smile. "Anyways! We've been talking for too long. Break is over. Let's get back to work, huh?" she pushes herself out of the chair, grabbing her empty plate and drink. Alison's groans are heard in the background as Emily walks over to the trash can.

"Let it all out. Groan as much as you need to but you have a final you need to pass. _Chop, chop!_ "

 **The road of discovery is starting to get a little wider, wouldn't you say? We're slowly learning more about the girls just as they start to learn about each other. There were several clues to things, past and present, sprinkled throughout this update. I'm pretty sure you noticed them. Do you think Alison noticed them? Did Emily? Can you see Emily banging on a drum set? Alison tried to imagine the imagery of a younger Emily doing so and she thought she probably looked cute in her little outfit. Do you think so too?**


	4. Chapter 4: Any Last Parting Words

**I'm am incredibly delighted and grateful for the reception for this story so far. Already we can see the divide between the two girls and their personalities, and I believe it'll make for a yummy snack as this continues on. Oblivious "dork" Emily is growing to be one of my favorite Emily's yet!**

CHAPTER #4: Any Last Parting Words

 _Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action._ **Bolded is a flashback.** (….) is an indication that time has passed.

"We've only been together for a month but I really feel like I've gotten to know a little part of each of you from these sessions. It may not feel like it but I did. We've went over everything I believe there is to go over and I can confidently put $100 on each and every one of you that you will ace your exams. No question. No doubts."

Emily sits on the edge of her stool and folds her hands onto her lap as she looks out to the undergraduate students staring back at her, suited up to leave but waiting patiently at their seats as Emily shares her parting words with them.

"While this tutoring does come to an end tonight, I want to leave you guys with some food for thought that you can possibly carry with you during the course of your lives. Each one of you have dreams and aspirations. Ideas and hopes. Wants and desires. Never lose sight of them. _Never._ "

Emily's eyes land on Shana as she emphasized her "never" which made Shana want to shift in her chair. Why did Emily look at her when she said that? What does that mean? What does she know? Why me?

"You will have incredible high-points in your life where you feel like everything is falling into place the way it should be. You also will experience devastating low-points in your life where you will feel like the world you know would be better off without you. Know that you will go through these transitions but never let it deter you from where you want to be. If nobody tells you that you they believe in you, screw them. _Make_ them believe in you. _Make_ them regret doubting you. _Force them_ to reevaluate their _own_ life decisions because of how you turned out. Create your name and make it hold weight. Be a Khan, be a Fring, be a Driscoll, be a Coogan, be a DiLaurentis. Believe in yourself."

Emily's voice begins to be pick up with authority as she begins to feel she was center stage at a TED Talk or at some kind of gathering in front of impressionable young people. She knew they were hanging on every word she spoke because of the subtle posture changes. It showed that they are _engaged_. Not knowing what kind of advice they hear on a daily basis, if they come across any at all, Emily felt this was the perfect opportunity to give them motivation, especially going into a huge test.

"Envision exactly where you want to see yourself in the next five, ten, twenty years because those years are going to come whether you want them to or not. So do something worthwhile with it. Doesn't matter how dark and murky your past was, your future is spotless and waiting for the first strokes of your paintbrush that will shape how it turns out. And only _you_ can paint that future. A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. Always remember that. I believe that one of these days, I'm going to see each of your names outside of this very classroom. I just know it."

…

Alison absentmindedly fiddles with one of her lower large, black buttons on her red, double breasted, cashmere coat as she sat in quietness. Sitting in the same chair she's always taken during their personal time, Emily watches her, not saying anything to force words to fill a silence. She stares at Alison's knitted brows that created a crease in her forehead and the tight lines around her narrowed eyes. She was an obvious deep thought and Emily didn't want to disrupt it.

So, in the stillness of the empty classroom on a brisk and windy December night after the group left, they just sat.

"Do you think I'm ready?" a soft, meek question floats out of Alison's lips. The mere sound of her voice made Emily break out of the almost curious daydreaming she fell into and straighten up.

"I know you're ready. Do _you_ think you're ready?" she responds, applying the same low volume Alison used so she wouldn't disturb the feel of the room.

"I guess we'll find out when the time comes." Alison sighs, leaving her coat button alone and leaning back into her chair, her eyes laid upon the floor. She chewed on her tongue for a moment before she spoke again.

"Thank you for being there for me the way you have. Most people would have charged extra or made some excuse as to why they couldn't take on additional help at this frequent rate but you didn't. You showed up every day with no complaints." She glances up at Emily, catching her gaze. "That means a lot to me."

"Of course. It's no problem." Emily nods with a small smile, briefly pulling away from their eye contact to look down at her hands rubbing together. "I wouldn't have been able to live with myself knowing someone is out there struggling when I could have prevented it, you know? So...it's not a problem at all."

The room falls quiet again as Alison stewed. Emily wishes she could outright ask what she was thinking about, what was so heavy on her mind, but she figured with her exam being a large percentage of her overall grade, it could have just been nerves. Less than thirty seconds pass by and Alison suddenly stands up, causing Emily to follow her direction and also raise to her feet.

"Well…I guess this is goodbye." Alison grabs her bag and slings it over her shoulder.

"Yeah." Emily crosses her arms with a somber twist of her mouth.

"I've never been good at goodbyes..." bowing her head, Alison stuffs her hands into her trench coat, almost as if she was feeling a certain way about their separation. Emily wanted to say anxious but felt that wouldn't describe it accurately enough. Hesitant? Apprehensive, maybe?

"You won't have to if you need help with another science class." Emily lightly elbows Alison as a grin slides across her face in attempt to lighten things.

Alison shakes her head, "You're just saying that so I can continue paying you almost $20 a hour." she points out, almost rolling her eyes as she holds back a smile.

Unlike Alison, Emily allows herself to express the emotion she's feeling in the moment and laughs at the comment before she held up a finger.

"Oh, before I forget-"

Alison watches her stride over to the professor's podium to grab her things before her eyes drifted over to the right hand corner of the board. The same place she would find herself anticipating before their sessions.

" _DiLaurentisim: The act of knowing Alison DiLaurentis is going to ace her final!"_ trailed by a decently drawn greenflexing emoji was written and Alison notices how that wasn't up there prior when the group was present. She wonders when Emily had the time to scribble it down without her seeing.

Sliding her arms into her black, wrap coat with her scarf draped and bag strapped, Emily approaches her again. "I got you something." she reveals as she hands Alison a square, white case. Alison squints at it, not knowing what it was seeing that it was blank.

"I did say maybe, didn't I?" Emily beams proudly as Alison turns what appears to be a DVD case over, then deciding to open it.

" _Wait_." Emily halts her, putting a hand on top of Alison's to cease her movements. "Not now. Not until you're finished with your test."

With the curiosity now bubbling inside her like a shaken up soda can, Alison pursed her lips into a pout, tapping the case against her palm, having no choice but to obey the command despite wanting to rip it open even more now.

" _Well_ , either you have really good timing or we're beginning to think alike because….I got you something too…" she digs her hand into her purse and pulls out a long, leather case and hands it over to Emily. At the sight, Emily couldn't help but giggle at the fact that not only did they both get gifts for each other but they were both in cases of some sort.

"I saw it in Michael's and it reminded me of the little performance you put on about a week ago. Found it fitting."

Standing in front of each other, holding their received offerings, Emily suddenly felt like a kid. Similar to the well-known yearly ritual that was forced upon children in elementary school during Valentine's Day. A holiday where students within a class would exchange cards and candy with each other, specifically making sure you gave your crush the best card while everyone else gets the same generic messages on theirs. The instant you exchange gifts with your crush, it was the most nerve-racking moment of the entire day because you hoped that they like it and somehow fall for you in the process, as children believe love works. She wanted to say this observation out loud as an amusing reflection but then retracted that idea, not want to make things awkward with the implications of a topic like Valentine's Day.

"Can I see what's inside?"

"No. Not until you get home."

Emily cocks her head at Alison, narrowing one eye as a smirk suddenly appeared. "Are you saying no because I said you can't open yours?"

"Yep." the smile can no longer be contained on Alison's face, showing the first genuine grin of the entire night. "Now the anticipation can kill us both."

Seeing such a bright smile made Emily's heart beat a little harder in her chest. She liked whenever Alison smiled, especially during a time where she's been incredibly tense. It made her feel good that she was able to put her at ease with something she did.

For what feels like the umpteenth time of silence slithering into their conversations, Emily watches Alison place her white case into her bag and tried to come up with something that could possibly stall for time to prevent a cumbersome, final goodbye.

"Are you going out to your car? I…I can walk you, if you'd like?"

"Sure." Alison easily agreed. "We'll be stuck in this room all night by this rate if we don't start getting out of here."

Emily allows Alison to lead the way as she bagged her leather case. Taking her last sweep around the class to make sure nothing was left behind, Emily's feet were walking her towards the door when she realized she forgot to rid something. She quickly turns around and trots over to the board, grabbing the eraser.

"You saw this right?" she asked Alison as she pointed to her last message of their sessions.

With her cheeks expanding and the corner of her lips curled into a tight yet gracious smile, Alison confirms with a single nods. "I did, thank you."

Internally satisfied, Emily removes the board clean of any markings with a few swift strokes, places the eraser back on the whiteboard railing, and follows Alison out of the classroom where she flipped off the lights and closed the door behind them.

"For the winter break, are you going to stay around the area or are you going home to see family?" Emily begins another conversation with an easy, icebreaker kind of question as they walk down the lengthy, empty hallway on their way towards the nearest exit.

"I'm going to head towards home once they kick us out. My parents would never stop bitching at me if I miss the holidays." Alison answers with her response as she grabs her gloves from her coat pocket and slips them on. "I'm giving them Christmas but New Years is a different story. That is definitely being spent with my friends."

Emily pushes open a door with a firm push against its rail-handle when a gust of Connecticut's freezing night winds smacks her in the face. She braces through it and stands off to the side, holding the door open for Alison. After getting her thank you, she lets go of the door, whips the end of her scarf around her neck, and tightly wrapped her coat shut with a tie of her belt. While she enjoyed so many things about this season, the bitter cold always was her biggest foe.

"My car is right there." Alison politely pointed out into the parking lot lead them into the right direction. Emily looks into the distance and a spots a red Ford Fusion. For some reason, seeing how Alison presented and dressed herself, she always imagined her driving an attractive, luxury vehicle, something probably gifted by her parents. This was Yale, after all. It wouldn't be uncommon.

"Where did you park?" Alison asks while they walk in an unhurried fashion towards her car a couple hundred feet away.

"I'm down there in the corner." Emily nods her head to right of them, at the end of parking lot to a larger car. "The black one."

Alison raised both her brows in surprise. Noticing how laid back and composed Emily has exhibited herself this small time they've been together, along with her music liking, Alison envisioned her driving maybe something older like a vintage muscle car. Something small yet easy on the eyes.

"An SUV kind of girl, huh." Alison crosses her arms as she stares at Emily's lone vehicle in her parking spot. "You like riding big?"

"I mean, yeah. I tend to lug lots of things around. Sometimes a sedan isn't enough space so…I went bigger." Emily shrugs with a toss-up of a smile as she takes in the beauty of her recently brought Lincoln MKX that she worked her ass off to buy. Although it was used 2015 model, she was able to snag it in a sale and had fell in love with it ever since dumping her old junk of a car she had since high school that was falling apart with every mile.

"What about you?" Alison turns to face Emily with her curiosity kicking up as she remembered the conversation she was having prior to being distracted by cars. "Anything going on for the break?"

"I'm staying around a little longer because of work but I'm flying out to my family as well. I haven't seen them in a while so I'm pretty happy about that." a fog of air puffs out of Emily's mouth as she smiles greatly, looking off into the distant street lights that illuminated the streets that had a few cars whizzing past them. "I love Christmas so I'm really looking forward to spending it with them."

" _Awww_." Alison coos at the lively glee that radiated from Emily at just the mere mention of her family. She must be really close to them, Alison figures.

"Are all your siblings flying in too?"

"Ah, no." Emily shook her head as they neared the driver's side of Alison's car. "I'm an only sibling. It's just my parents and me."

"Well…do you have anything planned for New Years?"

"Uhm...spend them with my parents, I guess?"

" _Really_? No wild partying and getting drunk with your friends?"

" _Oh no_. I don't-" Emily chuckles with a wave of her hand before she quickly tucks them back into her coat. "I try to stay away from all of that. _That_ scene. I did it once and that's all I needed to experience. But, I guess I do have a friend who wants to do something for the New Years so if everything pans out, I might spend it with her."

"That's good. It's good to bring in the new year with some kind of fun. Wash away this crappy year, you know?"

Emily nods as her eyes connect with Alison's and, without words being uttered from either them, they shared a brief moment of staring into each other. With a small shimmer of light and a flawlessly application of her makeup, Alison's eyes were feline-like and trance inducing. Emily felt she could stare into them for minutes on end when Alison turns away, grabbing her keys from her purse.

"I should get going..." she respectfully suggests as she toys with the keys in her hands.

"Right," Emily clears her throat with a shake of her head. "Don't let me hold you up. Just be sure to let me know your final grades." she pauses momentarily. "You...you still have my number?"

"Yep. Saved in my phone under _Awesome Tutor_." Alison innocently teases.

" _Awesome tutor_." Emily laughs at that disclosure that she had no idea about, not even knowing Alison actually created her contact instead of having it linger around as an unsaved number. "Okay, then yeah, just text me it then. Not only so I can congratulate you but I can show the organization I'm under so they can see your final and overall progress."

"Of course." Alison concurs. With a press of a button, Alison opens her car door and slips inside, making sure to roll down her windows as she starts her engine to get the heat started. Fastening her seatbelt, she turns back to Emily for any last parting words. Waiting for her to say something.

"Good luck to you in life, Ali. I hope everything works out the way you plan for it." Emily tells her in a genuine and warm voice as she stands outside her window.

"You too, Emily. Be safe."

With their drawn out goodbye, Emily watches Alison pull out of her parking space, not knowing whether to stand around or walk away. Nonetheless, she opts to hold her position until Alison drives off into the streets when she jogs in the direction of her car. One thought that bugged her at the moment was during the last minutes, she didn't get a hug or at least try for one. As weird as it sounds to her, she would have liked it if she had received it as a way to say goodbye. She should have initiated it, at least, but then again, maybe its best she shouldn't have.

…..

After a well desired hot shower and towel drying her hair, Alison steps into her room, throwing her clothes into her hamper and heaving herself onto her bed. It was a quiet night with Aria out, most likely with Ezra, and her other two roommates in their own private rooms. She stares up at the ceiling for a long minute, hearing occasional heavy footsteps coming from the suite upstairs, before she looks over at her bag on her desk.

With a push of a button, Emily silences the beeping of her microwave and grabs her spaghetti and meatball leftover she had made the night before. She walks over to her dining room to sit with the case Alison gifted next to her. Eating her food as she stared at it, she tried to guess what could be inside. The interest becomes too much to handle after a short while when she finally goes to open it.

Alison cracks open the blank case Emily gave her and sees two disks inside – one branded MP3 and the other MP4 with a simple, white label sticker. Having an idea of what this was but being impatient anyways, Alison pops out the MP4 disk and powers on her Blu-Ray player, sliding it right in. The launching of the DVD felt like tortuous seconds sluggishly passing by as Alison crawls into her bed anticipating the big moment. Going from black to a sudden light, a video starts with the camera facing a drum set in an isolated area. She couldn't tell exactly where this was located but it appeared to be in the middle of a large room. Maybe a basement, Alison theorizes. The camera stays stagnant for a good twenty seconds until it abruptly shakes with the zoom going back and forth as if someone was adjusting it.

Emily laughs as her gift was unveiled with much eagerness. There were two sets of pencil pairs, four in total. But they weren't just any pencils. They were drumstick pencils – slightly larger than normal pencils in the shape of drumsticks. She examines the present, feeling the weight of them in her palms, and the checks out the ends which mirrored the tips of actual drumsticks. Still laughing to herself, she twirls two of the pencils between her fingers on both hands and begins tapping a beat on her dining table, impressed by how it sounded.

Alison watches the screen attentively until a body walks into the frame and sits on top of the chair behind the drums. A wide smile from ear to ear completes the lower half of Alison's face as she witnesses an obviously teenage Emily putting her light brown hair up into a high bun. It was almost a surreal sight to her after seeing such a mature and older Emily nearly every day. This Emily was about a shade lighter than how she is now, smaller in both height and body size, with a complete baby face. Alison was instantly put into adore-mode by all of this.

Younger Emily puts headphones over her ears, making sure everything fit perfectly by testing it with a few shakes of her head to see if they would move or come off. To the right of her, she had a laptop on top of a small table to which she scrolls through fleetingly before she settles herself. Grabbing her sticks with a spin in her hands and taking a deep breath as she stared into the camera, she begins to talk.

"Today is Sunday, September 20th, 2009-"

"Oh my God." Alison whispers to herself as her awe continues. Not only was younger Emily adorable but the difference in her voice was another thing Alison caught right away. It was about an octave higher with a slight scratch to it. The same scratch that later develops into the rasp in Emily's voice when she speaks now.

"I was in the car with my mom earlier today and we were listening to the radio when Jordan Spark's new song _Battlefield_ came on. It was my first time hearing it and I liked it. It had this new generation spin on it but it reminded me of another Battlefield classic that I _really_ like. I've been practicing this song for a good while now and I think I'm confident enough to say I got it. So, bringing back this timeless hit from Pat Benatar, you know what I've concluded? I think it would have been awesome to live in the 80s. Everything seemed so cool and liberating then. Probably everything except the drugs."

Emily laughs at her own little jab when she leans over to her computer. The laptop connected to speakers off-camera begins the song as it is now played at a loud enough volume to be heard on camera over the percussions. The moment she starts drumming, Alison could feel her energy being tied to the music with every head bob she did as she drifts away into her craft. Emily mouths the words to the song as she strikes down with her sticks, adding a combination of extra fills and a few tricks here and there - both grabbing Alison's attention like no other.

About a minute into Emily's cover, an older man appears in the background walking past, bopping his head to the beat. Before disappearing completely, he notices the camera and backs up, almost how people act when they notice a news crew recording at a local spot. Without Emily noticing as she's lost in her own world, the man begins to sway to the music, raising his hands to join the band with his air guitar. It was fairly quick when Alison made the assumption that man was her dad. She was amazed by the genetics because Emily, especially how she looked now, favored him a lot. Opposite to her own family where she feels that she looks nothing like her father. A few more moments came and went when a woman entered the frame as well and Alison couldn't do much but laugh. If she thought Emily favored her father, she clearly didn't see her mother. She was a perfect blend of them both.

The older woman comes through with her ears covered, seeming as if she was trying to ask her husband something when he grabs her hand, spins, and then dips her. She was clearly confused by the sudden action when he points to the camera, smiling like a mischievous child. He continues his air guitar, gesturing her to join him but she refuses. He doesn't allow her to leave when she tries to, however, only adding lip syncing to his duty as Emily's imaginary band member. Egging her on with a grin, he doesn't let up until she finally cracks with a roll of her eyes and small movement of her hips. Enthusiastically, he holds her hand and leads her to the front so that they're in Emily's line of sight. There is a second of her being startled by their presence when it's replaced by a goofy smile, noticing how her parents were dancing along to her performance. With all the happy energy flowing between the three of them as they began singing the song aloud in unison, Alison laughs and curls up to her pillow. This was going to be an awesome night.

 **Do you have a goofy smile on your face right now? You should. Someone call 911 because these two and their attention to detail for each other will be the cause of my death.**


	5. Chapter 5: Marriott Marquis

CHAPTER #5: Marriott Marquis

 _Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action._ **Bolded is a flashback.** (….) is an indication that time has passed.

There is something about winter holidays that fills Emily with joy. The feel of Christmas, the contrast from the cold outside to the warmth of a house that radiates the scent of gingerbread cookies, to the lights, Christmas jingles, and the laughter of loved ones that makes a home spring to life. Emily has always adored what happiness such a time could bring. She's never lost that kid-like, wide eyed delight when she was able to put up decorations, wrap and share presents, tell stories, and drive around to join the festivities that were up and running. After everything she's endured growing up, the blessing of still having her father around and parents together, it made her grateful above all. This certainly was her favorite time of the year.

Secluding herself in "her" room in her parents' house in Texas, a house they brought after she left for college, she crouches down to zip open her suitcase. She rummages through her personal items on the hunt for something when there is a brief knock on the slightly ajar door. She looks over her shoulder to see her dad on the other side, waiting for permission to enter.

"Hey." she welcomes him as she turns back around to her suitcase. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, kiddo. Just checking on you. I haven't really had any time to talk with you. Especially with your mom and your aunt stealing you away the moment you came off the plane." he closes the door behind him. Pausing briefly as he watches Emily continue to sift through her belongings, he takes a step farther into the room.

"How's life moving along for you?"

Emily raises to her feet and temporarily abandons her search once seeing the direction this conversation was going. She takes a seat on the edge of the bed, raking her hands through her hair.

"It's pretty decent. I can't complain. I have an awesome job that I love going to, a house, a car, good friends. I'm…I can't complain."

Wayne sits down next her, nodding his head. As Emily looks down at the fabric of her pants, Wayne's eyes surveyed over Emily's face, trying to pick his words and tread carefully on what he wants to ask.

"What about… _dating_?" he inquires gently, not trying to probe too much into her personal life. "Anybody you like? Anyone you're interested in at the moment?"

Emily chuckles out a laugh, rolling her eyes to look up at the ceiling. "Oh my g-"

" _I'm just asking!_ I'm your old man! You can tell me. You can tell me _anything_ with no judgement."

She shakes her head, still smiling to herself. It's as if this conversation is a must ask at every major family gathering, no matter who you are. She knows her father means no harm and is wondering how she spends her alone time but it doesn't help when she has her constant reminders back at home from her friends and environmental surroundings.

"No." she answers after some silence. "There's no interests or anything of the sort."

"Are you trying the dating pool, at least? Seeing your options?" Wayne lightly pushes as he turns his body a bit to face her more. "I don't know much about Connecticut women but I'm pretty sure there's a few in your area that-"

"The only options I'm focusing on right now is whether I should experiment more with my trials or present an idea that could change the way disabled people live their lives in the future." Emily determinedly cuts her father of in a respectful yet firm tone. She looks at him with the tilt of her head. " _Work_ is my main priority."

Wayne's sense of encouragement leaves him as his shoulders slouch. "And that's good. _That's great_. But it won't hurt to treat yourself as well, Em." he reminds her.

He knows how hard things are for Emily and the older she gets, the more he wants her to be happy, not bury herself in distractions and letting the years pass by with her unhappiness growing. He knows his daughter. He knows when she smiles and laughs, if there is a light behind her eyes. Sometimes it's bright and sometimes it's dim and flickering but there's always a light.

That's one of her biggest traits: her eyes. They're expressive. It's both a blessing and a curse because she cannot hide her true emotions without it leaking out of her eyes.

Simply nodding her understanding of his words as she stares straight ahead, they sit in the quiet for a few moments before Wayne stands up with a small sigh.

"Well, you know whoever she is when she comes, she's more than welcomed here. I may not be able to size her up the same way I'd do with a guy but I'm pretty sure your mom will be a good judge of character. As long as the girl says her cooking is the best she's ever had, she'll be already her favorite. Just….don't bring home someone that could be a competition for her. You know she has to be the only _Paula Deen._ "

"Behind every Paula Deen is a Rachael Ray." Emily comments with a sliding smirk curving the end of her lips.

"Okay, now you just want to spark a war." Wayne playfully shoves Emily to the side, making them both laugh. "But go ahead and spruce up. In about half an hour, we're going to be battling the neighbors in a game of Family Feud. I need your thinking cap on because they've been talking _smack_ for the longest. In the meantime, I'm going to try to steer your aunt Dana away from the eggnog that I'm pretty sure she added a little _extra_ to."

With a little silly face, Wayne exits the room and leaves Emily time to herself again. Upon the door closing and footsteps retreating, Emily leans all the way back until she falls down onto her bed with a huff. She inhales deeply as she stares up at her ceiling, hearing laughter bubbling from downstairs from the unexpected full house. Thinking to herself with her mind jumping around, touching different plateaus of topics, Emily silently lays until her phone began to ring. The buzzing within her pants pocket makes her shift to side and dig for it to see who was contacting her.

"Hello?" she answers, putting the phone to her ear as she continued to lay.

"Good news. Everything is set and our New Years plan is on."

Emily sits straight up with her eyebrow raised, wrinkling her forehead. " _Really_?"

"Yep. And you can't back out of this either."

"I'm not I just…..have no idea what you're planning since you never explained any details about this."

"You let me worry about _details_ when you get here. Just know I have a few things up my sleeve that you might enjoy."

" _Mona_ …" Emily groans, closing her eyes as she falls back onto her bed.

"Mona, nothing. We don't hang out as much anymore and I miss you so there's no room for hesitations on this. This is your moment to get up and get out, Em. And _what better place_ than New York City to let loose?"

Mona listens to Emily's various noises of dissatisfaction on the other line but she brushes it off.

"Start booking the ticket now to JFK because I reserved a hotel on the 29th. We'll both chip in for the rental unless you want to walk and take public transportation everywhere."

"I think it's better to go without a rental? Just because it's Manhattan, right? New York City?" Emily expresses. "You'll have to deal with constant traffic and non-existent parking which seems like a hassle more than anything. I mean, that's what I've heard about that city anyways."

"Fine. No rental. We'll just Uber everywhere. _Well_! Start getting a flight now and tell your folks you won't be able to stay over for the New Year. You've got a date with your best friend, instead."

…..

The days tap dance rather slowly until it was time for Emily to leave Texas. Although Pam feeling she had "just got here" and wished she could stay longer, they understood and were happy she created plans to spend with one of her closest friends. Raising Emily, she always had a rollercoaster of a social life and there was nothing they wanted more than for her to gain a solid, trusted circle outside the family that she can lean on when they aren't there.

On the 29th of December, as planned, Emily arrives at the John F. Kennedy International airport to a tiny Mona awaiting her appearance since she landed at an earlier time. Together they grabbed a ride out of Queens to Manhattan where they pull up to the Courtyard by Marriott, the hotel Mona was lucky enough to book a single room during a hectic time such as New Years. They explore around the city and with this being Emily's first time in New York, Mona was able to pop her traveling cherry by taking her to several locations for sightseeing, shopping, and to taste the best the state had to offer.

When New Year's Eve finally comes and the evening approaches, Emily's anxiousness grows to skyscraper heights because of Mona's tight-lipped quietness about their plans for the big night. Especially since she told her that she needs to put on her best clothes.

"I don't really like this blindfold, hostage situation with how you're keeping me in the dark about what's going on until the last minute." Emily speaks out loud as she stands in front of a full length mirror in the hotel room, adjusting her boyshorts underwear.

"If you _must_ know…" Mona dramatically sighs as she lowers the music playing from her phone. Her voice floats out of the open bathroom where she was also getting ready for the night. "We're going to the Marriott Marquis."

Now fully secured and tucked away, Emily steps over to grab her dress pants that laid out on top of her queen bed. "The hotel? Why?"

"You know when you're at home and instead of going out, you watch the ball drop in Times Square where they have so many networks hosting to cover it?"

" _Yeah_ …"

"Well, we're going to be right in front of the ball drop," Mona finally spoils as she flat irons the last section of her hair to the ends, completing her bone-straight style. "Watching it fall from the Marriott Marquis rooftop aka the biggest, most exclusive party in all of New York City with prime view of New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest."

Emily slips into her silky, rose pink, pegged trousers, bringing them up to tightly hug her waist when she walks over to the bathroom Mona was prepping herself in. "What are you even saying because you lost me at ball drop."

Patting the top of her head after sleeking her hair back with a thin, unnoticeable headband, she reaches forward to dig into her purse and hands Emily a bright and colorful party flyer.

"We're going to be under _Direct Ball Drop View VIP Package_ which includes all of the General Admission benefits in addition to the other packages." she casually explains as she stares at herself in the mirror, checking her face out in different angles and picture ready facial expressions. "So that means we get early access to the bar, dessert bar, dinner buffet, the live performances, cocktail servers, and VIP seats for the ball drop."

Upon bypassing the flashy titles, Emily trailed down to the package Mona spoke of and glanced over to the price attached to such luxury.

Direct Ball Drop View VIP Package - $5,000 per ticket

Emily's hands smack against the nearest wall as she tries to hold herself up from falling to her knees. " _Oh my God! Mona?! I! I-I...I…_ " she stammers as she frantically looks between the flyer and Mona. "We're grad students! I don't have this kind of money to spend just to _get into_ a party!"

"And neither do I." Mona pokes out her lips as she retouches up her orchid purple lipstick. "We're getting in for free."

" _How?_ Wha-how is that even possible if you said this is an exclusive party?"

"Because I'm Mona Vanderwaal. Middle name: _motherfucking._ Under my reach, nothing is impossible." she smacks her lips together before she glanced over at Emily with a wink. "Now, the only thing you have to worry your _pretty little head_ with is making sure you look cute. You never know….maybe you'll bump into a celebrity while you're there. Have to be ready for anything."

"But I didn't bring clothes to be seen by _celebrities_ or cameras or any of that." Emily throws her hands by her sides and walks off, back towards the beds wear the rest of her stuff laid. Mona follows behind her in her crystal-beaded, sequin cocktail dress as Emily stands in front of her mirror, overlooking her appearance.

"That's why when we went shopping, I made you get _that_." Mona points out Emily's attire that consisted of silk, rose pink dress pants with a matching crop sweater.

While shopping at various outlets, Mona pushed Emily to get out of her comfort level of casualty and had her buy clothing that created more flair. At the time, Emily didn't know why Mona insisted such outfits but it only makes sense now that they're about to enter a party way out of their league and, frankly, tax bracket.

"Don't you feel like a somebody?" Mona asks as she stands behind her, pushing Emily's dark waved hair to the front.

"I guess?" Emily shrugs as they both stare at each other in the mirror.

"Hun, if we're going to this party, you need to know how to exude confidence. Even when you're not feeling it. It's called _fake it 'til you make it._ " She props Emily to raise her slumped shoulders and fix her posture.

"Now I ask again, _don't you feel like a somebody?_ "

Emily clears her throat with an upwards chin tilt. " _Yes_. I feel like a somebody."

"That's my girl." Mona wraps her arms around Emily's waist and gives her a squeeze.

"I still don't understand how the hell you managed this."

"I know people everywhere. Let's just keep it at that."

...

Not rushing to get to the doors to beat everyone else, Emily and Mona arrive to a massive crowd at the infamous Times Square on their way to the hotel. The line to enter continued down the street and around the corner when they stepped out their Uber by the front entrance. Emily lets Mona lead the way as they walked to bouncer allowing the partygoers in. Standing in the cold for however long they've been waiting, people shoot Emily hostile glares as they both cut everyone anticipating entry when Mona begins speaking to the man guarding the door in a hushed voice. After a few extra brief moments, the guard nods his head and slips out two black and gold wristbands from his clipboard.

" _Aye-aye-hold up!_ Me and my girl have been standing out here freezing our asses off to get in and _these two prima donnas_ just roll up and get to bypass everyone whose been standing out here?! I don't give a fuck who they are, they gotta go to the back of the line like everyone else!" a young man angrily protests with his hands jammed in his coat pockets, clearly shivering from the cold.

"Maybe if you weren't a cheap motherfucker and brought a VIP package, you would have expedited entry and wouldn't have to stand in line, would you, dumbass?" the bodyguard barks back with an irritated tone that rose above the stranger's, effectively quieting him and anyone else who possibly wanted to speak up. The guy scoffs with an eye roll when the worker turned back to the girls.

"You ladies enjoy yourselves tonight." he motions them to the door. Mona struts through the entrance with Emily looking back at the people one more time before she walked inside. With such an intense interaction, a part of Emily felt bad that had she cut all those people who were there longer. But then again, she definitely fancies the warm air of the hotel lobby than the freezing temperature outside.

"And _that's_ how you take care of business." Mona flaunts their free wristband with a giddy smile. "Now, onto the eighth and ninth floor. That's where the party really is."

Following Mona like a puppy trotting behind their owner wherever they go, they arrive to the eighth floor of the hotel where everything changed. The large open lobby space was decked out with the finest décor used for a lounge kind of party. A deep pink glow illuminated the entire floor as people strolled around past the DJ bumping loud radio hits. The moving crowd was about one hundred people just from Emily's immediate line of sight. They stood on a balcony with the lower floor appearing to be the dancing spot whereas the top level was more of a mingling area. For some reason, Emily had in her mind that the demographic of partygoers would be young adults but she couldn't be more wrong. The crowd blended with adults of all ages and looks, not just one specific mass such as your average nightclub. As they walked around to check out the floor and what it had to offer, Emily couldn't help but think that every person at this event paid from $500 to $5,000 to get in. That is, unless they were like Mona and created some kind of witchcraft deal on the low for access.

 _This must be what it's like to live the high-roller lifestyle._

Half an hour flies by within a blink of an eye and the crowd surrounding them seemed to double in size. Mona pushed Emily to relax and have some fun but she felt awkward, almost like she didn't belong there. She is _more_ than grateful for Mona spending time with her, taking her out, and bringing her to a very high-scaled party but she felt way out of her comfort zone. She would never tell Mona, however, in fear of her taking it negatively and making her appear unappreciative but how else could she tell her that this environment was giving her hyper war-like flashbacks of sophomore year?

"I'll be fine here. _Really._ Why don't you go dance for a little bit?" Emily urges Mona to flee the nest. She nods her head in the direction of a man standing with a hand in pockets, holding up a wall."I think that guy over there likes you. He's been looking at you since we came in."

"I'm not interested in dancing with any sleaze here. If I'm dancing, it's going to be with you unless you're dancing with someone else." Mona flips her hair over her shoulder, not even budging to glance at whoever Emily was referring to.

Emily sighs to herself and downs the last few remainders of her French 75 cocktail. She knew in order to really ease into a comfortable mood, she would need a few more drinks in her system. As of right now, she's too stiff.

"Come walk with me upstairs." Mona takes the glass out of Emily's grasp, passes it over to a nearby server walking past, and takes her hand. "I can go for some sweets."

As the puppy, Emily is right behind Mona as she leads them to the elevator heading to the ninth floor. The luxury desert and buffet was open to all after they were able to have first-access an hour before everyone else and while she wasn't "hungry", she could put something in her mouth.

Together they walk up and down the tables and tables of food and pick out what fancies them at the moment with Mona holding a small white plate in hand, After a few seconds, Mona stops.

"Fuck me…" she mutters under her breath.

Emily snaps her neck at her, stunned. " _What?!_ " she whispers harshly at Mona, with deer-in-headlights wide eyes.

With a nod of her head straight ahead at other partygoers, Mona motioned Emily's eyes in the direction she was looking at. "Is that who I _think_ it is?"

Seeing the back of a suited man, they both intently watch him pick fruits from a table across from them. Emily is not sure who hewas supposed to be and why Mona pointed him out but she carries on watching him until he turns around to leave his spot. His eyes glance over the crowd until he freezes in place.

" _Mona_? _Emily_?"

" _Ezra_?" Emily shockingly calls back. As he approaches them Emily couldn't believe the sheer luck of his presence at _this_ specific party out of all the locations in New York. Out of all the locations in the entire country.

Mona places a hand on her hip, clicking her tongue with a head shake. " _Well, well, well_. What are _you_ doing here?"

"I should ask you two the same question." Ezra adjusts his suit jacket as he stopped before them. He takes a passing glance at both their outfits, never seeing them so dressed up before. "You didn't mention you were coming to New York for the holidays."

"Neither did you. Looks like we are back at square one." Mona smirks.

"You paid 5,000 dollars for a ticket?" Emily wastes no time to ask. Ever since he turned his face, all Emily could think about him paying that lump sum of money to get in. She hasn't forgotten about any of this night's costs ever since she had a near heart attack at the mere sight of it.

"Five thous- _no way._ _God, no._ " Ezra repeatedly bats his eyes in disbelief at the assumption. He doesn't know whether he should be flattered that Emily thinks he has money or insulted that Emily thinks he would waste it on a party. "I'm an English major not a banker. I can't even imagine having that much to blow on one night. I'm here with some friends."

He swiftly corrects himself with a raise of his finger just as someone walks up behind him. " _Well,_ I'm actually here with my girlfriend and her friends." Almost on cue, he feels a hand on his back and looks over to see a short, brunette girl on his side.

"Aria, you've met Mona and Emily." Ezra politely reintroduces.

" _Emily_?" Aria repeats her name with an astonished face which makes everyone turn their attention to her, especially Emily.

Her eyes bounce between Aria and Ezra. " _Yes_ …?" Emily answers back slowly, her brows now knitted. Why did she call her out specifically?

"Oh…" Aria realizes she spoke her name out loud and not in her head as she expected herself to do. "Oh no, I just...nice to meet you again." she quickly covers up with a forced smile.

"So, how many people are you guys with?" Mona swoops in to save an already awkward meet-up from morphing into an awkward conversation.

" _Uhm_ , a pretty decent sized if you count us two." Aria responds. "Six people in total."

"And here are two of those people." Ezra waves over at said company. One out of the two was farther up ahead while the other trailed slowly behind. "Mona, Emily, this is Aria's brother, Mike. He's a freshman at Syracuse and decided to come join us in the city."

A causally dressed young man in a powder blue suit nods, the open jacket over a white button up that matches with his equally casual white high top sneakers. With his height over Aria and the light scruff of facial hair he had, Emily had to remind herself that Ezra said freshman because he looked like he could have been Aria's older brother. She and Mona say their hello's as he responded back with his own, however, Emily caught onto the lingering gaze Mona had on him. She wasn't sure if she was seeing things but it looked like, for a quick moment, Mike and Mona were checking each other out in a "subtle" way.

"And this is-"

"Emily Fields." a voice says confidently.

Emily's attention is pulled away from those two at the mention of her name when she is caught in a staring match of her own. For a moment, she couldn't believe her eyes. Thankfully Mona was the one holding their dish because if it were in Emily's hands, she for sure would have started fumbling with it by now.

" _Alison_?" she utters out in complete and utter astonishment.

Aria presses her lips together, suppressing a smile as Ezra's points at them, his narrowed eyes dancing back and forth. "You two…you two know each other?"

"Something like that." Alison holds her sly half smile as she doesn't break her stare at Emily. She was hanging around Mike for a minute while they surveyed the food being served when Ezra beckoned them over. From a distance, she didn't know who he and Aria were speaking to from the purple glowing lights blurring things but as she got closer and got a better look, she couldn't help but to laugh to herself.

"She is, or _was_ , one of the undergrads I tutored." Emily explains their relation when Alison jumps in for a slight modification.

"Please, we're not on campus right now. You don't have to refer me as a _student_." she tilts her head in Ezra's direction, with a playful scoff. "I was just someone she helped with their finals."

Getting some kind of picture, he nods his head with a faint mystification still lingering on his easy-to-read face. "Well…uh…I'm sorry, I just find it so weird how we all decided similar plans. That's just blowing my mind right now."

He shakes his head with a touch of his temple before he cleared his throat, looking back at Emily and Mona. "But if you will excuse me, I gotta go snag those sausage roll before someone else does. I'll be right back."

Pardoning himself, Ezra steps away from the little circle to go back to the tables of food. Aria simply follows behind him to prevent herself from behind an awkward third wheel with Alison and Emily and allows them space to say their hellos. Standing right next to them, Mike clears his throat, switching Mona's concentration instantly.

"So, you're Aria's friend?" he asks to break the ice between them.

"Ezra's." Mona corrects him with a small smile. "I've met your sister a few times."

"Then you go to Yale as well, I'm guessing? What's your major?"

"Political Science. And you?"

"Architecture."

"Oh?" Mona gives a quick, impressed glimpse over at Emily before she turns back to him. "You're someone that depends on their hands to get the work done, _hm_?" the question comes out as she moves him along so they can have their own space to talk.

"I thought you weren't going partying for the new year?"

Emily's attention suddenly snaps back to Alison after watching Mona walk off with Aria's brother. "Huh?"

"You said that you try to stay away from _this_ kind of scene yet….here you are." Alison crosses her arms. "Any explanation for that or was that a lie?"

Despite the way she's talking to her, Alison little smirk never actually goes away. Emily's not so sure how to make of it but she takes it that Alison is just as surprised as she was.

"I was dragged by a friend." Emily awkwardly laughs as she points her thumb behind her shoulder, indicating Mona. "But the real question is how did _you_ get in here? The tickets were pretty expensive."

Alison lifts up her right hand to show off her green wristband. "We pre-ordered general tickets around October. It was a bit cheaper then. We've planned this for a good while now. Except Mike. He paid the full $500 for being a last minute addition."

Without warning or asking, for that matter, Alison reaches for Emily's arm, sliding back the sleeve of her sweater to expose her colored wristband. The enlargement of her eyes told it all when she looked back up at Emily.

"Black and gold? You brought the $5,000 ticket?"

Emily opens her mouth to speak but stammers instead. It was as if there was a sudden spotlight put on her and if she didn't play it cool, it would be found out that she snuck inside without paying. "I mean…..sure? Somewhere along those lines." she smiles, attempting to keep normal.

"Look at you doing it up. First you buy yourself a new car and now you're buying thousands of dollars' worth a ticket." She shamelessly checks Emily out with a light head nod, her lips pocked out with captivation. "You look good actually. _This_ …" she smooths her fingertips on the softness of Emily's sleeve.

"This fits you."

The lines of Emily's mouth crease upwards into a laugh as her eyes follow the frame of Alison choice of her outfit to bring in the new year _._ "I can say the same about you. You look…. _gorgeous_ in that."

And gorgeous it was. Following the cocktail/semi-formal dress code, Alison decision of her black party dress featuring a form-fitting sheath silhouette with plunging V-neck and a split at the short skirt was not lost on Emily for one second. A fancy scripted necklace of the letter A draped from her neck, right above the much exposed bare skin of her chest. Emily blinked her eyes away from staring too long when she nodded her head again, tightly smiling back at Alison.

"It's really nice."

Politely interjecting into the conversation, a server holding a platter of drinks approaches Emily, asking her if she'd like anything to drink. Skimming over the options the man had within his hands, Emily picks out an old fashion glass of a dark red colored liquid with a slim orange peel propped inside. The man smiles at her, telling her to enjoy her night before whisking away to serve others.

Staring at the server as if her brain was processing the magic trick he just performed, Alison points at him as her eyes move back to Emily.

"Did you pay for that or did he just give it to you for free?"

"I didn't pay for this." Swirling the ice in her glass as she swallowed her sip, Emily realizes the obvious confusion on Alison's face. She probably felt like she missed a memo because she looked like she was moments away from taking off and getting a glass of her own.

"It comes with the perks of the black and gold." Emily goes to explain. "The price covers free cocktails. It's like an all you can drink kind of thing. Unless you want something different and go to the bar."

Just like that, the lightbulb above Alison's head darkened with the clarification. Pouting as she watched the ice float inside Emily's glass, she glanced back up at her.

"Can you get me one?"

"Uhm…." Emily hesitates, sweeping her eyes around the open lobby. She spins around, trying to find that uniformed employee that has seemed to disappear into thin air as soon as he separated from them. "I don't….I don't see….him. I think he left."

"Then, do you mind me?" Alison points a finger at Emily's hand. "I mean, you can have all the drinks you want this entire night so I don't think you'll miss this one that much."

"Yeah….yeah, sure." Emily sluggishly fumbles out, suddenly feeling she was a naïve 19 all over again. She extends her drink to Alison with a smile. "You can have it."

"No, I'm not going to _take_ it from you. We can share." Alison accepts it, raising the glass to her nose for a brief waft of the whiskey before she takes a sip, all while keeping her eyes on Emily. She lightly smacks her lips as she acquires the taste of the alcohol on her tongue.

" _Tasty_."

….

The dancefloor was now filled with several hundreds of people dancing along with the diverse selection of music the DJ spun. After finishing their drink plus an additional two Emily was able to snag for the both of them, Alison had brought Emily onto the floor with her for some fun. They bop side to side as they face each other, only at comfortable distance where they're not invading personal space. On a scale from middle school to college party style of dancing, they were jamming comfortably at 7th grade.

Half into the mix of the second song, Alison's eyes divert to a girl behind Emily who appeared to be attempting to get Emily's attention for some reason. With her body still moving to the beat of the music, the girl tapped Emily on the shoulder but Emily didn't budge, either because she didn't feel it or thought it was contact from the people bypassing her.

The girl looked to be somewhere in her early twenties, another pretty blonde in a tight dress but hers an eye-catching red. The girl makes eye contact with Alison, nodding her head towards Emily as if silently asking her to get Emily to turn around for her. Instead of obliging to the simple request, Alison swiftly pulls Emily into her, body against body, placing both her arms around Emily's neck. She doesn't break a single step as she stares back at the girl, silently telling her to get lost.

Feeling light and content, Emily shimmies her shoulders with her eyes closed, feeling the bass of the music go through her when Alison abruptly tugs her body to be chest to chest. Her feet stagger in her steps from this, not sure how to react to this change of space.

Alison moves her eyes to Emily's visibly startled face. In the midst of warding off random chicks of the night from interjecting themselves in a moment her and Emily were sharing, she forgot to take into account how awkward she possibly made things now.

"Is this uncomfortable for you?" she asks as she scans Emily's face, genuinely concerned that she might have overstepped boundaries.

"N-No. No…I mean," Emily's mouth moves at a speed faster than her brain can formulate a response. Closing her eyes momentarily to steady herself, she takes a silent breath. "If you want to dance like this, I-I don't mind."

"Well, you can put your hands on me, if you'd like." Alison reassures her. "I'm okay with it."

Emily slowly raises her hands and places them on Alison's waist as directed. From that moment on, their dancing went from fun to suddenly charged with unspoken tension. There was no sensual dancing or any proactive movements and on the middle school to college party scale, they have graduated to freshmen year of high school. Although the sexuality portion of intimate dancing was absent, Emily was beginning to feel the tips of her fingers tingle just from the close proximity.

Another song later, it wasn't long before Alison started feeling antsy and wanting to get away from the music. Asking Emily if she wanted to come with her to the ninth floor, Emily agreed to follow wherever she wanted. As she removed her arms from Emily's neck, Aria creeps up behind her and whispers something into her ear. Emily watches as Alison turns around and looked past the crowd, into the distance. Before Emily could ask her what happened, Alison grabs her hand and leads her off the floor to where Aria and Ezra stood. However, there seemed to be another couple standing with them.

"Traffic was a fucking bitch and parking was even worse. We had to park like two blocks back for $25 an hour." the ranting blonde shakes out her hair, her face twisted up and breathing puffed in annoyance as she stood with a guy who seemed to be with her. Upon Alison's approach, her eyebrows raise, sizing up the girl with her.

" _Who's this_?" she points boldly.

Alison sighs aloud as she runs a hand through the top of her head. "Hanna, this is Emily. Emily, this is my friend, Hanna, and her boyfriend, Travis." she hurriedly introduces the three dryly, with no kind of life behind her words.

"Hi." Emily politely smiles with a small wave.

Hanna mouth falls open as her eyes light up with glee, finally putting a real life face to a name. "You're Em-"

"Alright, we gotta go. I'll see you guys later." Alison interjects Hanna's opportunity to speak as she walks off from the group, beckoning Emily to come with her. Just as quick as she joined the circle, she left in that same promptness. Emily swiftly paces to catch up to Alison, asking her if she was okay.

"I just wanted to go somewhere quiet for now. The music gives me a headache after a while." Alison clarifies as she moves her feet in the direction of the nearby open elevator that people were heading inside of. Trying to catch it on time, the doors close halfway there with the lights indicating it was going all the way to the first floor. Alison decides an alternative route and advances to the staircase, not wanting to wait for the elevators to come back to their floor.

….

Sitting on a purple lounge couch with a small circular table in front of them, Emily and Alison continued their drinking session with Emily grabbing different glasses from different servers so her and Alison could enjoy their food with some cold beverages.

With the dinner buffet about to close, they grabbed whatever looked good to bring back to an empty couch they were able to find. Alcohol was well flowing through their system since their first drink and Emily couldn't help think to herself that she was really glad she met Alison here.

Throughout the break, she thought about her more times then she'd like to admit. She found it mostly silly, although. Alison was just a student she tutored, why was she be on her mind as frequent as she was? Is she going to be like this to very student she personally tutors one on one?

Alison only messaged her once, as her request to let her know how her final results came out. After the reveal of her passing with an above average grade and Emily congratulating her, that was the last time she heard from Alison. There were times she would stare at their text conversation, something that only had professional-like messages going back and forth, and would debate on whether she should text her. Maybe a "hey" or "how is your break going?", but every time she believed she was going to send it, she would then erase everything. If Alison didn't write her past their last conversation, what if that was a sign that she was finished with their interactions as a whole? Emily didn't want to be seen as awkwardly hanging on when things were obviously done.

But from how Alison was treating her now, maybe it wouldn't have hurt to send a "hello".

" _So_...the little DVD you gave me..." Alison speaks through her vivacious smile as she sinks her mozzarella cheese stick into a marinara dip. "I liked it."

"Really?" Emily raises her brows, honestly stunned yet delighted that Alison brought up her videos. If there was anything Emily wanted to know, it was her take to her some of most personal moments growing up.

"Yeah, it was cute yet surreal at the same time." Alison takes a bite of her cheese stick. "Just because I know you as how you are now. But in the videos, you were so small and adorable."

"Were?" Emily lightly laughs.

"I mean, you still are but it's more of you were adorable at a younger age but you're more..." Alison tries to find the words as she waves around her half-eaten stick, staring up at the ceiling. " _alluring_ at this matured age."

Emily nods her head. " _Alluring_..." she repeats as she raises her glass to her mouth.

Finishing her stick and dusting off her hands, Alison watches Emily take several sips of her cocktail as she eyes the people around them. Her breathing slowed as her bottom lips slips in between her teeth. She could feel the drinks starting to hit.

"Why didn't you text me?" her words comes out in an almost whisper as her eyes hang low, staring at Emily's lips before Emily turns to look at her.

Emily catches Alison's eyes staring back and all of a sudden, she felt hot. If there was a reverse Medusa gaze that melts victims in their sight rather than turn them to stone, Alison definitely had it going for her right now.

"...I thought it would make things weird" Emily's voice matches Alison's low tone in her reply. "I'm...I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Alison drops her eyes to Emily's outfit. "Did you like your gift?"

"I loved it. _Love_." Emily immediately corrects herself. "I love it."

"I can't get enough at how incredibly soft this is..." Alison takes the end of Emily's sleeve and sandwiched it between her thumb and index finger, rubbing the fabric. "I love this material. _Rich_. It feels so good against your skin."

Alison's hands trail up Emily's arms as Emily watches her do so. She quietly gulps down with her throat getting dry considerably fast.

"It does..." she agrees. A twinge of throbbing starts aching in between Emily's legs, making her grimace slightly at the discomfort. With blood flowing and all of this close consistent touching, Emily stretches out her leg to somehow delay the inevitable.

Holding their eye contact, Emily felt the world slow down to almost completely standstill. The sounds of the party muffled into distant rumbling as she notices Alison inching closer on top of their already close sitting position. The fact that what she thinks is about to happen is most likely happening, her heart begins pounding against her chest like a cartoon animation.

It can't be denied. Alison felt an overwhelming urge to kiss Emily. Just to see how it felt. To feed her curiosity, to see if it does anything. Her movements felt like her body was in autopilot while the inner-her took the passenger seat, watching everything happen with no control. The stage was set, lights on, cameras rolling, the perfect opportunity to test the waters as her hand rested on Emily's lap.

Face to face, Alison tilts her head to fit the puzzle of meeting Emily's mouth. The gentleness of each other's lips make soft contact with one another like a whispered secret.

A large clash makes the girls jump away from each other when the small, round table in front of them is almost knocked over. Emily and Alison's quick reflexes kick in and lunge for it, saving Alison's drink and the plate of food from spilling over.

"Oh shit!" a guy with a girl holding onto his arm slurs out an apology, unable to contain his drunken laughs. "My bad. I didn't see that table there."

"Watch where you're going, _dumb fuck_!" Alison roars at him from the bass in her throat, glaring at him like a lioness ready to attack her lunch.

The couple stumble their way away from them, still hearing snickering as they left. Alison huffs out an annoyed exhale as Emily tries to still her sudden nerves that were now shot. Nevertheless, the way Alison switched gears on the fly from being gentle to murderous was a shock of a surprise. _A hot surprise_.

"Fucking losers." Alison mumbles as she irritatingly swipes the hair out of face.

Emily swallows the remainder of her drink in one gulp, leaning back into the couch, mourning the little moment that was ruined. Not sure if they'd be able to get back into the mood they were in with this disruption, Emily was still floating on cloud nine. She feels what she could imagine the first stages of getting high feels like. The electricity just from being that close to Alison felt unreal. Keeping a professional boundary line between them was officially erased.

Just as Alison said earlier, _they're no longer on campus_.

...

Coming out of the VIP coat check, Emily pushes her arms through the sleeves of her nearly ankle-long, black coat. She walks through the glass door leading to the outside balcony when the New York cold reminds her why she preferred to stay indoors since she arrived.

"Did you have to stand out here this entire time?" Emily asks who looked like a female door guard, observing everyone socializing.

"Just started this hour. I have to make sure the people on the deck nearing midnight are those who paid for the view." the woman coolly responds before she respectfully pointed at Emily's hand. "Can I?"

Emily pulls back the sleeve of her coat to expose her black and gold wristband and the guard nods, telling Emily to enjoy herself. Emily thanks her and walks off to see all of commotion happening below her right in the middle of Times Square. She stands around for about a minute before she heads back inside, smiling at the guard as she goes through the door.

A few minutes pass by before Emily steps back out onto the deck, hands jammed in her pockets, going back to same spot she just stood in. She pretends to check out her surroundings as she watches the door from the corner of her eyes. Alison steps out from the warmth of the inside and proceeds to walk forward when she is stopped by the guard. She lifts her wrist to show-off her black and gold wristband when the guard allows her in. Alison plays it cool as she slowly strides towards Emily before a smile creeped onto her face.

"Told you it would work." Alison whispers with a tiny giggle as she looked around at the site she had, overlooking the world-famous celebration of the ball drop. She wraps her bare arms around herself, "If you look and act the part, nobody questions you."

"Where's your jacket?" Emily asks as she just realized that Alison stepped into freezing weather with a revealing, short dress.

"I told you." Alison turns to Emily with a honeyed, sly smirk. "I have thick blood."

Emily could basically hear the clatter of Alison's teeth when she spoke despite her trying to seem unaffected. She rolls her eyes as she unbuttons her coat.

"And I told _you_ …that's not even a real thing." she successfully undoes her coat, opening the sides widely. "Come here."

Alison shuffles her already frozen legs into Emily's direction when she mashes her body right against Emily's, getting as close to her as she possibly can to steal her heat. Emily immediately presses her lips together as she encloses the jacket around Alison's body, as much as she could cover. Being flat on each other, Emily prays with all the energy inside her that Alison doesn't feel anything. She expected her to huddle in the inside of the coat by her arm, not Alison's front flesh against hers. She thanks her lucky stars that she decided to tuck for the night because if not, there were going to be some premature explaining she would have to do that she clearly wasn't ready for yet.

" _That JLO perfume_..." Alison notices as she rests her face carefully on Emily's velvety sweater, making sure her makeup won't transfer onto it. Music suddenly pierces through the windy air and Alison twists her neck to look over the balcony railing to the stage below. An artist begins to perform an all too popular song, making thousands of people in crowd scream and holler all at once.

Alison bounces lightly, singing along with the lyrics, when she slips her arms around Emily's waist ever so casually.

 _This girl is a ball of surprises_ , Emily thought to herself before she relaxed under Alison's embrace, hugging her as well to keep her covered. _Bold surprises._

…

Midnight is quickly approaching with minutes left of 2017 and now the deck was becoming filled with people as they tried to find a spot to stand for the big moment. Emily looks around, taking in the faces of everyone around them when she sees Mona stepping out from the inside with Aria's brother. They notice each other pretty quickly yet, without saying a word, Mona nods at her with a smirk as she continued walking. From that obvious look, she can already _hear_ Mona asking 101 questions when they get back to the hotel.

"Have you ever watched the ball drop in person before?" Alison peeks up at her, almost like a child with the apparent height difference.

Emily shakes her head. "Only on TV."

"Well, looks like we're about to get the $5,000 experience up-close and personal."

Ryan Seacrest's voice hops onto a microphone for all of New York and the five boroughs to hear when he announces the countdown that was about to begin. People whip out their phones to record, anticipating the seconds.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE. LET'S START THE COUNTDOWN! _10….9….8!_ "

"7! 6! 5! 4!" The voices of Manhattan thunder out in unison as the giant New Year's ball scales down the One Times Square building.

"3! 2! 1!" Emily and Alison join when the ball touches down at the 2018 sign, erupting massive cracks of fireworks as confetti rains down from the sky. Everyone cheers, jumping up and down as they now were officially in the new year of 2018, leaving the horrors and tragedies of 2017 in the past.

If not screaming out of joy, couples grabbed each other and kissed to celebrate. Before Emily knew it, most of the people around them who were holding another person shared an intimate moment. Emily looks down at Alison but, to her surprise, Alison was already staring up at her. Emily couldn't even process her new step when Alison raises up on her toes and kisses her on the lips. Unlike the last time, they hold their positions for a few seconds before they separate. Their faces lazily linger close to each other with shy smiles as Emily flickers her eyes open to look into Alison's, right when she noted Alison's pupils visibly dilate wider than normal. Emily lowers her face once again and, this time, initiates the kiss between the two. Gentle pecks are given, not crossing into the waters of anything passionate for their first, or technically second, time. Colored confetti swirl all around them as the fireworks light up the night sky like a scene from a movie.

…

Getting back inside and making their way past all kinds of partying people, Alison sees her friends waving to get her attention from a distance. Emily shadows behind Alison when Aria hands Alison her red coat she got from the drop off.

"We need to leave now if we don't want to sit in traffic for the next hour and a half." Aria jingles the rental car keys out of her purse and gives it over to Ezra before she turned back to Alison. "Are you ready to go?"

"Do I have a choice?" Alison less than enthusiastically replies as she tosses on her coat.

"Not at all, sweet cheeks. I'm glad you realized this. Let's go." Hanna snaps her fingers, grabbing Travis' hand and begins advancing to the elevators which Ezra and Aria trail after. With talks of _already_ leaving, Emily is of course confused about Alison and her friends' plans.

"What's going on?" she asks.

"We made a deal that we would stay here until midnight but then party hop for a few more hours since this finishes at one." Alison sighs as her fingers fly over the buttons over the coat to close them. "But honestly, I don't feel like partying anymore."

"I bet." Emily crosses her arms as she glances at the people around them still on level 10s this late hours later. "What are you going to do then?"

"I'm staying at DoubleTree by Hilton in Chelsea. We all are." Alison flips her hair out of the back of her coat as she ignores Emily's question and goes straight to the point of the thing that's ruminating on her mind. Emily looks back at her a little confused about this sudden divulging of information since she's not sure why she's been told.

"Except with Aria and Ezra having a suite to themselves along with Hanna and Travis….I have my own room. _To myself_." she accentuates her rooming situation, looking at Emily with encouraging eyes, trusting that she can read in-between the lines.

"And…..I'm hoping that you can come over and make it so I won't be alone tonight…?"

"Come on, Ali!" Hanna shouts from across the lobby as she holds open the elevator doors they all and several others stood behind.

"Room 272. _Doubletree_." Alison slowly walks backwards, echoing her words again to an Emily who stared back at her, almost appearing dumbstruck of what's being asked of her. "The one in Chelsea. Not the one here."

" _Ali_!"

" _Okay_! I'm coming!"

….

Mona enters her room card into the slot of the door before it beeped green with her pushing it open. No time was wasted when she yanks off her heels and throws them onto the floor with a thud and trots into her room, tired and exhausted. In the midst of this, she sees Emily sitting on the edge of her queen sized bed.

"Look at the woman of the night, right here." she teases as she removes her jewelry and places them on a nearby wooden desk. "Just left me for some hot blonde who happened to be your student, huh? What are the fucking odds of that?"

Mona doesn't hear a response or even a noise being uttered out of Emily despite the conversation she was trying to start. She looks back at her, seeing her looking down at the floor in what seemed to be deep thought.

"Is everything already over there, Fields?"

"…Alison invited me back to her hotel tonight." Emily confesses in a mutter, her eyes still low.

Mona spins around absolutely shocked by what she just heard in the most pleasant way possible. "And the only reason why you're still sitting here is because you're waiting on the notification that your Uber is outside, _right_?"

Emily sighs, turning her head to the side away from Mona's gaze with a frown that didn't match the news that was revealed.

"Emily! What's the matter?! This is perfect for you!" Mona gawks at her with her hands extended, not sure if she's missing the picture and shouldn't be excited about this for her. "I saw you kissing on blondie so I know that has to mean you like her _somewhat._ Why aren't you going?"

"I'm scared, Mona." Emily lifts her head to look at her with watery eyes, her face completely distressed. "Just when I thought I was ready…. _I'm not_."

Mona drops her shoulders as her grin from five seconds ago was wiped away and replaced with a sadden mope that matched Emily's. The energy of the room just did a complete 180 degree spin into dimmed hope and darkness and it almost gave Mona whiplash.

"Everything happened so similarly tonight. _Everything_. I can't go through this again." Emily wipes under her eyes before a tear could fall, something she did _not_ want happening. "I barely survived last time. I…I can't re-experience this for a second go-round."

" _Em_ …" Mona takes a seat on the edge of the bed next to Emily, putting a calming hand on her knee. "If you go over there, you don't have to have sex. It's not a law. You could make out, maybe cuddle a bit but you don't have to go all the way if you're not ready. I'm pretty sure she'll more than understand."

Emily lets out a loud sigh, shaking her head. "Even if I did go and decide that I want to do it, I didn't travel with… _condoms_. I didn't even think I would need something like that during this break."

"Well, that could be easily solved. The hotel literally has a quick store downstairs where you can buy some. And if you want, I'll come with and help you pick out what would be the best for you."

Emily refuses to look at Mona. She knew the face she was wearing based off her voice and she knew if she caught a glimpse of it, she would break. She didn't anticipate on feeling emotions on this so intensely but she was starting to feel overwhelmed. It took her so long to get over the disaster of sophomore year. It's been five years since everything and it still haunts her to this day. No matter how she tries to fight it, she can't stop replaying the moments in her head whenever it decides to remind her of the past. And although this was Alison, a new person, a fresh slate, _everything that has happened to tonight has been nearly an exact mirror._

"But the fact of the matter is….she's waiting, Emily." Mona pushes Emily out of her head when she lightly turned her by her chin to face her. "She told you where she's going to be and expects you to show. Don't stand her up. And if you're 100% not ready, then at least text her. _No_ , call her." she revises with a point of a finger.

"Call her and tell her that you won't be able to make it. You can blame it on me and say that I wasn't feeling good or whatever and I need you here. But trust me, if you don't tell her anything and let the night pass, it will only give out a bad message and create awkward interactions in the future no matter how nice of a time you guys had. You practically go to the same school, you _will_ bump into her again."

Mona stands up, raising her arms to the back of her neck to unhook the necklace she was wearing as she looked down at Emily.

"If you go, take it slow and see how things turn out. But don't stay here, Emily. _Go_."

 **We know what Emily** _ **should**_ **do but what is Emily going to decide on doing? Stay in her room or go to Alison's? What if Alison doesn't want to hook up? What if she just wants to play Dominoes? But the real question above all, what is holding Emily back?**


	6. Chapter 6: Sophomore Year

**It is 2018. And after waiting and waiting and letting me know you're waiting, you got your first AM update of the year. And it so happened to be in the ol' fashion AM style of a fat chapter. Bon Appetite**

CHAPTER #6: Sophomore Year

 _Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action._ **Bolded is a flashback.** (….) is an indication that time has passed.

Pressing the power button to her phone, Emily stares at the large numbers plastered on her screen. Seven minutes to 11:30am, Emily rests her head against the light grey walls as she hears the voice of a professor lecturing his students inside the class she stood outside of. The game of telephone she had to play with Ezra and Aria just to get this information was her last hope of contact seeing that her calls weren't being answered. She goes over her words with a hushed mumble to herself as if she was practicing a speech she was next to present in front of a crowd. The anxious nerves that accelerated through her body sure felt like she was.

The abrupt opening of the classroom door startled Emily, making her push herself off the wall and readying herself. She awkwardly yet politely smiles at the students she made eye contact with walking out as she waited for the room to clear. As she waited for the person she wanted to see.

One of the last people to exit her History class, Alison strides out the door as she slides a notebook into her bag. Looking up, she catches Emily's hesitant face, a face she was surprised to see so early in the day compared to the nights she was used to. However, she keeps walking, not so much as looking back as she passed her.

"I texted you this morning." Emily calls out to her as she found herself walking quickly behind Alison's swift steps, "And called. And called again."

Alison continues to move down the hallway as if she was alone, blatantly ignoring Emily's presence. While this hurt her, Emily was starting to get used to it since Alison hasn't returned a single message or call she sent her way since the first of January.

"Alison, I wanted to say I'm sorry and give an explanation-"

"I don't know why." Irritation spikes out of Alison's voice as she stared at the elevator at the end of the hall, a destination that seemed to extend farther and farther away by the second. "There's obviously no need to explain anything. Every word, every action, every silence, it spoke for itself. Loud and clear."

"But I feel that I owe you one still. It's only right." Emily practically jogs up behind Alison. "It's been over two weeks now and we haven't been able to talk about wh-"

Alison spins around, standing face to face with Emily who was caught off-guard with the sudden movement. "I really don't have time to do this." she huffs. "There are things I need to take care of and you're just holding me up."

The attitude she responded with was something Emily had never seen before. Albeit, she doesn't know her well enough to know her range of moods but this one struck at her deeply. Alison looked at her as if she was a pesky, bothersome child that she was forced to babysit. It made her feel small. Insignificant. Like a fly Alison wanted to swat for buzzing too close to her ear.

Emily clenches her jaw, dropping her eyes to the floor as she nods in understanding. She had a chance at something and she blew it. Not anyone else. _She_ was at fault here and she couldn't push Alison to speak to her if she didn't want to.

" _I'm sorry_." she solemnly apologizes, swallowing down hard. She sucks in her cheeks, finding it hard to look back up at Alison. Instead she nods, twisting her lips to the side. "I hope you have a good day." She turns around to save the sliver of dignity she had left and walks off, taking the more than obvious hint.

"Why do you-" an annoyed groan utters out of Alison. Emily stops and looks at her just to see Alison sharply inhale with an eye roll towards the ceiling, shaking her head.

" _What is it, Emily?_ What do you have to say that's _so_ important?"

….

Alison closes her driver's side door with a sigh, still treading on the peeved side of the spectrum. There was complete silence for a moment while Alison starts her car and adjusts the setting for hot air to blow through the vents as she sits in the middle of the snow covered school parking lot.

"You said Mona got sick after all the food and alcohol she had at the party and that you had to be there for her so she doesn't throw up all over the hotel room. I got that. Sometimes things happen after hours of constant drinking and you need someone to help you out. But when I spoke to Mike, he said that she was fine when he stopped by the hotel to see her that night. Why did you make up a lie? Why couldn't you have just told me from the beginning that you weren't interested?"

Emily sits in Alison's passenger seat with her hands nestled in the warmth of between her thighs. Instead of talking it out in the hallway, Emily asked if they could go somewhere where they could sit and discuss things. Alison offered one of the nearby on-campus cafés, however Emily urged somewhere less public. As she eyed down at the interior of the vehicle, she felt like she was sitting in a police interrogation room with a cop grilling her about stealing candy. Although she meant no harm, Emily felt incredibly guilty about leaving Alison hanging, not to mention stupid for not coming up with a better reason for doing so.

"I did leave." Emily defends herself, weakly. "After getting to my hotel to freshen up, _I did leave_. I made it towards the elevator to go to the lobby but….I panicked."

Perplexed by her words, Alison turns to stare at Emily who refused to look back at her. "Why would you panic? And if you did, why didn't you just tell me that you were uncomfortable? We're not kids, you don't have to make up some excuse just to say you can't come outside."

Alison watches Emily stay silent, her eyes away from her and it was pissing her off by the second. Emily couldn't even respect her enough to look at her. At that second, Alison wanted to say forget it. Tell Emily to forget everything and to just go. She cannot believe she was upset and harassing her, someone she had just met almost two months ago, because she didn't spend the night with her. It was ridiculous and a waste of time. They weren't even dating.

"You know what, Emi-"

"Growing up wasn't the most memorable experience for me." Emily finally speaks up before Alison had the chance to finish expressing herself. Alison bites her tongue reluctantly to let Emily continue despite the bubbling feeling of wanting her to leave.

"I've shared with you little things I've done like playing the drums and crashing a school event with my friends because those were memorable moments. They were the soft and sugary surprises within the jawbreakers of my life that are nice to reflect on. _They're like a warm hug_. There aren't a lot of warm hugs I can go back to."

Emily peeks over at Alison for the first time since she's entered the car, her hands rubbing against each other in anxiousness.

"You are my second ever kiss." Emily exhales out with a small smile. "The second person in all my years of living that I've shared an intimate moment with like that."

Alison couldn't even say Emily was her first, second, or third kiss. But for her to be Emily's milestone in a way, it was surprising. Extremely surprising. With the attributes Emily had from her height to her beautifully crafted face and her easy personality, Alison would have guessed Emily would have been kissing girls since middle school. Was this part of the reason why she panicked? Because she is inexperienced?

"I've never had a girlfriend before. Despite wishing I had with one person." Emily began explaining and immediately Alison was hit with yet another surge of shock.

Though not a stretch of the imagination that Emily hasn't dated anyone because of the lack of kisses she's had, however, it still came as a surprise. Not _one_ girl has thought to themselves that they liked Emily? Nobody attempted to try things out with her? Nobody?

"There was this girl I knew, my friend, which I had this _goofy_ crush on. She was at the school in the new state I moved to after the whole school performance incident. She was pretty much the only person I got really close too there." Emily leans back into the cushion of her seat, staring out the front windshield. "I was too scared to say anything to her because I didn't want to ruin the good thing we had as friends but I _really_ wanted to. She was awesome in every way and represented this free and fearless spirit that I wish I had."

Suddenly with this divulge of personal information, Alison wasn't sure where it was going or what it meant for her. Especially with their last interaction being Alison pathetically asking Emily to "spend the night," she glances down at her nail, picking at skin on the side of her nailbed.

"Was she your first kiss?" she asked almost carelessly yet still curious on the answer.

Emily clicks her tongue with a slight wince. "No, _I wish_. I was too much of a wimp to ever initiate or imply that I would like to take that step with her."

The concealment of Alison's face was solid. You wouldn't be able to tell that she was somewhat joyous that this girl Emily crushed on didn't get to upstage her kiss. However, the question remains as it appears that Emily is going to tell her some story of a random girl that she didn't care much about. Why does this matter?

"One day, though, we got into a huge fight. She got busted for smoking weed by her parents and being the naïve girl who thought all drugs were equivalent to heroin, I got on her about how she's ultimately killing herself, ruining her health, and wondering how she could be so careless. I can only assume she saw it as a betrayal – your best friend taking your parents side over yours."

Alison glanced up at Emily. There was a sense of reluctance in her voice. Her words started coming out at a slower speed and it made Alison's ears perk up like an animal detecting a change in the air. Emily's eyes narrow as she silently pressed her lips together for a moment.

"She disappeared shortly after that fight. After two days of not talking, I couldn't stand the silence in-between us so I called her to apologize for jumping down her throat but she never called back. And then more days had passed. And then a week…"

Emily tenses up, becoming visibly uncomfortable as she trailed off. Like a viewer completely submerged in their show, Alison watches her intently because of this.

Taking a quiet breather to herself, Emily's eyes lazily close. "She goes from a runaway teen to a missing person. And few weeks later, she goes from a missing person to an identified body of missing person that was found."

Alison's eyes widen as her mouth falls open. The drastic change of direction from the fallout of not hooking up to speaking about a friend's death made her completely speechless. She didn't know how to appropriately react, how to respond, or how to even navigate the waters of this topic.

"That shit _destroyed_ me." Emily's voice lowers, following her shameful head bow. "I mean literally destroyed me from the inside out."

Alison reaches out to gently touch Emily's arm, rubbing her though the fabric of her jacket sleeve. With every thought she had about Emily flaking on her, she felt lower than a jerk for even having them and not thinking of the possibility that maybe they were moving too fast.

"You know that's not your fault, right?" Alison delicately soothes her. "You shouldn't carry that burden with you."

"I know. But you sort of go into survivor's guilt, almost." Emily clears her throat as her voice began to waver, resting her folded hands on her lap. "If I didn't yell at her, if I would have been there for her when her parents were threatening to send her away, maybe she wouldn't have ran. Maybe she wouldn't have been in an area she had no business being in. Maybe she wouldn't have come across a creep who started following her and ultimately killed her. And like I said, she was the only person I had moving from Texas to Oregon. With her being gone, especially someone I practically fell for, I felt like my world was gone, you know? She accepted me for who I was in such a kind way."

"I know growing up gay had to be extremely difficult. Especially when people can be so ignorant about it to the point you have to conceal your true self." Alison sulks with her as she slouches into her seat.

Emily scoffs out a small laugh as she turned to look out her passenger side window just as a group of students walked past the car. " _Yeah_. That too."

Alison scrunches her brows together at Emily's diction as she removed her hand. _That too?_ What was in addition to being gay? Was she missing something?

"By that time, I drifted so far into isolation, I really didn't want to meet or talk to anyone throughout the rest of my remaining years of high school." Emily continued. "And I didn't. I was in my own bubble. Up until _here_. Specifically my sophomore year."

"I don't mean to seem impatient or offensive or anything but is this why you panicked that night?" Alison civilly tries to slide herself into the story in hopes of speeding things along so she can get a clear reasoning why she was stood up. It was the sole purpose she even agreed to talk to Emily right now. "Because you're a virgin? If you would have told me, Emily, I wouldn't have said or done the things I'd done."

Although coming to this conclusion within her mind, saying this out loud was still kind of hard for Alison to grasp. Seeing how much older Emily was than her and circling back to the qualities she possess, the idea of Emily being a virgin was plain outlandish. Yes, there are people who don't lose their virginities in their teenage years or even in their early twenties but this is Emily. The Emily who had such a melting smile. The Emily that's caring and supportive. The Emily that smells like heaven and has soft hands. Who wouldn't want to sleep with her? She could be religious or maybe planning to be celibate until marriage but something tells her that's not the reason.

"No. I'm not a virgin, actually." Emily looks over at Alison who raised a surprised eyebrow back in her direction. "I had my first kiss and lost my virginity in the same night with the same person. _Sophomore year_."

"Sophomore year must have been a big year for you, huh?" Alison crosses her arms, mildly impressed.

Emily sucked in air, grimacing a smile as her eyes subtly rolled. "Something like that. After the whole Maya thing in Oregon, I flew out here. Of course, being brand new all over again in a new location, knowing nobody. I hated my rooming situation. Not because I hated my roommates but my privacy is a _necessity_. So, the thought of sharing a dorm with two, three, four other girls was something I immensely disliked. But, you know how the policy is with freshmen having to stay on campus for the whole year. I impatiently waited until the following year when I moved out to one of those nearby apartments for students. Luckily, I was able to snag an apartment by myself."

"Having your own place, kissing, and being able to sleep with girls at your leisure?" Alison teases. "You must have been living the life."

Emily squeaks out a laugh she couldn't hold back after Alison's joshing. With the lightness of her face and smile brighten the dreary mood that was sitting in-between them, Alison joins with a small giggle of her own. Emily rubs her eyes as her grin begins to fade.

"There was this girl I so happened to have two classes with that year. _Very pretty_. Very pretty and _really_ popular. She was definitely one of the "It" girls on campus that just about everyone knew."

 _Oh, great. Another story of yet another girl._

"Although she being a senior at the time, whenever I was around her, I couldn't help but stare during class because I would be _that_ obvious. I probably spoke to her once or twice and it would be her asking me if I had the notes for the days she missed. Other than that, I guarantee sure she didn't know my name."

Emily stews in her seat as her right leg begins to lightly bounce. She knew she was getting there. She knew she was about to relive the beginning of the end.

"So, after being in the depths of boredom in my apartment on a Friday night, I decided….. _screw it._ I'm going to do something and get out of this mood I'm always in. This _lonely_ mood. I remember finding myself at this party on-campus that seemed to be really active. I think it was a sorority house but I couldn't tell you which one it was. So, in my screw it attitude, I downed some drinks and tried to loosen myself up. I may have been hugging a wall but I still tried to loosen myself up. And that's when I noticed her. _She was there_."

 **Emily quickly looks away when she makes eye contact, pretending as if she was just checking out her surroundings. She raises the bottle of her freshly opened Keystone Light beer to her lips, noticing that "she" was walking towards her. Emily's heart begins beating against her chest but she tries to play it cool. Play it as if she belongs there.**

 **The girl walks by Emily, opening the lid of the cooler she stood by. Emily excuses herself out of the way and steps off to the side, taking brief and quick glances at her so she won't get caught again. The girl grabs a can burrowed deep inside the ice. She shakes the water off her hands and cracks it open to take a sip. Emily stares straight ahead as all kinds of people walk in and out the kitchen, yelling and laughing over the blaring, bass-filled music that was playing.**

" **I've been trying to put a name to your face." the brunette speaks up after staring at Emily for a moment, wagging her finger at her as she held her beer close to her chest. "I know I've seen you somewhere before…"**

 **Emily takes a double take at the girl before spinning her head to glance around her. "** _ **Me**_ **?" she points to herself in confusion. There was about a thousand people at this party, or so it felt like. No way would she be talking to her.**

 **However, the girl confirms her attention with a nod to which Emily gulps down. She** _ **was**_ **talking to her.**

" **I-I'm in your class. Two of your classes, actually." Emily nervously smiles. "The one with Dr. Pierre and Mr. Hart."**

" _ **Right**_ **." the brunette sings with a glowing smile. "You sit behind me, don't you?"**

" **Yeah-yes, I do." Emily grips her bottle tighter.**

" **And what would be your name, stranger from two of my classes?" the brunette steps in closer to Emily, making her hold her breath from the sudden close proximity.**

" **Emily." she nearly whispers out as she finds herself stuck in the brunette's medusa gaze with her deep, emerald green eyes that sparkled like gems held up to the sun.**

" _ **Emily**_ **…" she drags her name out while she checks out the younger undergrad up and down brazenly. "Do you know my name?"**

" **Of course." Emily breathes out slowly as her sight flickered between the brunette's eyes and her cherry lips. "You're Jenna."**

 **Jenna nods as she took a sip of her alcohol, challenging their already penetrating eye contact. Almost as if she was seeing how long Emily could last.**

" _ **So**_ **," Jenna swallows down, twisting her body to look at the people that surrounded them before she turns back. "What are you doing at a party like this, Emily?"**

 **All of a sudden, Emily felt tested by Jenna's question. Should she lie and said she was invited? Being at some sort of sorority or fraternity house, was there a specific guest list? Is she genuinely curious how Emily got in because of that?**

" **I,** _ **uhm**_ **…" Emily looks down at her bottle apprehensively as she tries to find her words. "I… I just saw this thing up and running and decided to check it out." Emily answers honestly and braces herself for whatever response comes out of it.**

" **You came by yourself?"**

" **Yes…"**

" **Well, that's no way to enjoy a party. How about you hang with me?" Jenna offers with a head tilt and a smile, making Emily physically melt inside. "Would you mind that?"**

" **No. Not at all. I-I would like that." Emily smiles back at her.**

"Being able to party with your crush? _Of course_ I didn't mind it. But I felt like she somehow knew I liked her because of the way she would look at me. It was captive, holding like a prisoner. It was almost as if she was feeling me out, deciding which particular move she should make first."

Emily recalls as trickles of snow begins to fall from the clouds above them and collects on the windshield. Alison's next lecture was at three and with all these stories Emily decided to spring on her, she felt herself becoming a little restless. Maybe it's because she was still a little ticked off about that night. Or maybe it's because Emily is now talking about this "hot" girl named Jenna she ended up sleeping with and she didn't care for the details. Maybe she wished Emily would talk about her. Them. New Years was a pretty big deal for them and she hasn't spoken about it not once. However, it seems as if Emily is telling her this for a reason and not to get her jealous. Or at least she hoped this all had a point to it. But in the meantime, Alison was started to get hungry.

"We ended up drinking some more, danced a bit, and not too long after, found a corner where she would start touching me more than usual." Emily rolls her eyes, landing them on Alison as she tilts her head in her direction with a scoff. "I've watched movies, I've seen shows, I knew where the interaction was heading. At this point, I've never kissed anyone before but I wasn't going to tell her that. I chose to just go with the flow. Follow her lead and hope I don't mess things up.

 **As the party rages on with people doing their absolute hardest to get the attention of law enforcement, Emily and Jenna sit in the back corner of a dim and thriving living room in a much more comfortable position with each other than when they initially met. Jenna's leg rests over Emily's as she pulls Emily closer to her with her both hands holding her face. Her tongue snakes inside Emily's mouth before her lips move away from hers, kissing down her jaw until she snugs her face into the crook of Emily's warm neck. Her kisses turns to light sucks when her idle hands trail down Emily's chest, falling right on the belt of her pants.**

" _ **Wait**_ **-" Emily abruptly jerks away from Jenna's lips on her skin and grabs her wrist in reluctance. Jenna snaps her a confused look as Emily's heavy breathing and anxious expression becomes more apparent than before.**

" **I,** _ **uhm**_ **…" Emily tries to explain her sudden outburst from their make out session. "Can we go somewhere a little bit more…** _ **private**_ **?"**

 **Jenna laughs, almost not believing Emily's hesitance. She rocks her leg that laid on top of Emily's thigh as she shook her head. "** _ **It's 2013, hun.**_ **No one is going to care that two girls are kissing in the corner of a room."**

 **Jenna leans in to carry on with her rendezvous when Emily pulls away, stopping Jenna once again. An audible groan vibrates out of Jenna's throat, exhaling a sigh to match her growing annoyance.**

" **I-I just would rather not be in such a public area with so many people…" Emily watches the people packed in the living room with some of them just within a few feet of where they sat – yelling, dancing, and bumping into one another.**

 **Jenna's eyes narrow as she stares at Emily watching the party with a sort of innocence on her face. The irritation appears to melt with a smile at that look.**

" **You're so** _ **fucking**_ **cute." said with a pout, Jenna runs her hands through Emily's hair, massaging her warm scalp. "Which dorm are you in?"**

" **Dorm? Oh, I don't…I don't live on campus." Emily explains as she tries to act like she's not dissolving into a puddle of mush underneath Jenna's fingers threading in and out of her hair. She clears her throat. "I live in off-campus housing."**

" **Do you think your roommate would be there around this time?"**

" **I don't have a roommate, fortunately. It's just me in there."**

" **Perfect." Jenna hops off of Emily, reaching down to grab her hand. "Let's get a little** _ **privacy**_ **at your place." she winks.**

Emily swallows down hard, stroking her hands against her jeans when she fails to continue her storytelling. Alison takes a double take, not realizing the sudden discomfort the first glance.

"What's wrong?" she asks with a pinched expression.

Emily drops her head and sucks her bottom lip into her mouth. The silent breathing technique Emily seemed to be using and how her face looked as if she was about to cry made Alison worried for the worst.

"Emily. Look at me. _Look at me._ " she commanded, gaining Emily to slowly turn her dejected face towards her. Alison shifts her body in her seat, slightly tilting her head down as she stares into her eyes.

"Did she force you to do something you didn't want to do? Or weren't ready for?"

Emily's silence in response to Alison's questioning created a sinking feeling in the depths of Alison's stomach. She inhales deeply from her nose as her eyes flickered closed. Everything suddenly started making sense. The hesitations. The timid behavior. The obliviousness. Not only did she grow up hiding herself, therefore crippling normal interactions within her life, the only time she opened up intimately with someone, they violated her. Alison's heart started breaking right on the spot when Emily's voice fills the quiet.

"When I was born, my delivery wasn't the easiest delivery to carry out. It wasn't so much the actual labor but the aftermath of it all." Emily softly speaks as she stares down at her shoes on the grey carpeted rug of Alison's car.

Alison looks over at her and she can see Emily struggling to get her words out. She wanted to tell her _it's okay_ and that she didn't have to continue but Emily was determined to say what she had to say.

It was now or never.

"While other babies are made sure they are healthy and then given to their parents to take home, I couldn't go home because I had to get all kinds of tests done on me. All because neither the doctors nor nurses could tell." Emily pauses briefly, pulling on the end of her coat sleeve.

"They couldn't quite tell if I was a little baby girl…..or a little baby boy."

Out of reflex, Alison's head cocked to the side as her face blended from saddened to perplexed. Although the transition was a slow one, the dots were starting to connect at a fast rate. Too fast for Alison's liking.

"So, they advised my parents to hold off registering my birth for a few days while they waited for my results. Sure enough, test levels indicate that my sex is a female, however….my body….my body indicated that my sex is of a male's." Emily finally confesses. As she spoke, weights, one by one, began to feel lifted off her shoulders. Almost as if she was coming out all over again. The new problem at the moment now was Alison's take. That's all that mattered. The one thing she feared over all for the past couple weeks: Alison's reaction.

The vehicle sits completely still as a muffled laugh of a nearby student passing them creeped to fill the void between them. Keeping her eyes away from her 98% of the time she's been there, Emily turns her face to look at Alison who was already staring at her.

"You're…You're _transgender_?" she managed to ask, still surrounded in the cloud of confusion.

"No. _Nononono_." Emily denies with a firm head shake, adjusting her sitting position as she twists her body more towards Alison. "I identify with the sex I was assigned – I definitely agree with being a girl. It's just that….somewhere inside the womb, there was this kind of mix-up. A developmental mix-up. Almost like the directions were somehow lost and things started going places it shouldn't have, creating all this chaos. And because of that, that's why I can't have roommates. That's why I can't openly mingle with people I like."

Emily twists the left side of her lips as the tick of bouncing her leg in anxiousness returns.

"That's why I couldn't go to your hotel room when you asked me to…it'll just create more chaos."

Alison was speechless. Actually lost for words. In a perfect world, in a fairy-tale story, she would know what to say and how to properly react to not make Emily feel ashamed but she didn't. She couldn't process the "reading in-between the lines" moment she was thrusted into. Was Emily saying what she thinks she's saying or is she going completely left with her thoughts? With all of her being, she hoped she was fabricating the new knowledge she had of Emily but as Emily went more in-depth, the reality of things crushed her hope.

"That night with Jenna, I knew things were going in a certain direction _fast_." Emily's confession continues to roll on, feeling if she revealed one thing, she has to reveal them all. "I had no choice but to let her know and hoped she doesn't shriek and run off like she saw one of those Australian spiders. You know what she said when I told her?"

"What?" Alison mindlessly asked. Most of her wasn't with Emily in the moment. Her asking Emily 'what' felt like she was on autopilot, going through the normal motions while she still dealt with the revelation that was dropped on her.

Emily shakes her head with a dry, humorless chuckle. "She said-"

" **Pull it out, let me see."**

 **Emily has a brief brain breeze as Jenna stares up at her, sitting on the edge of her bed. Fidgeting with her hands before she decided to cross her arms, Emily tries to come up with a complete sentence.**

" **You….you're not…you're not freaked out or anything?"**

" **A cute girl like you is telling me that she has a cock like some kind of hermaphrodite goddess in a mythology tale, I want to see it. Consider my curiosity more than piqued." Jenna presses her hands into the mattress behind her as she leans back, waiting with a sly smile. Her eyes glance between Emily's face and the front of Emily's jeans, brazenly.**

" _ **I'll show you mine if you show me yours…**_ **" she grins through her childlike coaxing.**

 **Emily uncrosses her arms and rubs her sweaty palms on the back of her pants, internally bracing herself for every possible scenario that could occur. Once she does this, she can never take it back. The only people on this planet that had seen her with her pants down were her parents when she was younger and medical staff at the hospitals she'd visited. Never had she experienced a time where she deliberately exposed herself and as the moment arrived, it felt much harder than she imagined it would. Especially when she has a pair of inquiring eyes watching intently.**

" _ **Okay**_ **…" she agrees with a sigh.**

 **Jenna tilts her head to rest on her shoulder as Emily began unbuckling her belt. The jiggle of the metal sounded as if someone had placed a microphone under it and connected to massive speakers, making the noise vociferously bounce off the walls of the room. The pulling of the zipper was no better, of course, adding to the symphony. Finally, Emily lets the jeans fall off her hips a bit to show her tight navy blue boyshorts. She takes a deep breath, not even attempting to look in Jenna's direction as she slid her thumb to pull down the front of her underwear with one hand and tugged out the attraction that Jenna was waiting for.**

 **And an attraction it was.**

" _ **Holy shit.**_ **" Jenna leans forward with her eyes enlarged like a cartoon character. She gawks at the semi hard on Emily held in her grasp in utter disbelief. Somehow, however, she still couldn't believe what was right in front of her.**

" **Are you sure you're not a fucking transgender?" Jenna laughs as she looks up at Emily, narrowing one eye. "Are you trying to pull a fast one on me right now?"**

" _ **I'm not.**_ **I'm intersex." Emily unconsciously covers herself while she frowns at Jenna's reply. "Transpeople don't identify with the sex they were given at birth whereas I do. It's just a genetic disorder I was born with."**

 **Jenna pouts her lips, seemingly thinking to herself as she stares at Emily, almost looking as if she was wondering if she should believe her or not.**

" **Can I touch it?" she asks openly.**

 **Caught off-guard by her boldness, Emily hesitates with her mouth unable to produce words. She innocently shrugs her shoulders. "If…if you want." she answered in a small and delicate voice.**

"And with how…forward she was, things started happening _very quickly_ and before I knew it, both our clothes were off and it was getting to that big moment. I was nervous as hell but, again, I couldn't make it seem like I was."

 **As Emily lays on her back, Jenna props herself up into a sitting position with her hands rested into the mattress, staring back at Emily. An awkward silence passes through them when Emily starts to feel anxious by the lack of movement or talking for that matter. Shaking her head at her as if her silence was obvious, Jenna finally spoke.**

" **Do you have a condom?"**

" **Oh. I,** _ **uh**_ **…" Emily skims through her mind's eye quickly as she shuffles around, opening the drawers of the night stand by her bed. "I…don't….think I have one nearby."**

 **Jenna sighs, clicking her tongue as she turns to look over her shoulder. "I probably have one."**

 **Leaning off to the side, Jenna grabs her purse that she had on the floor by the corner of the bed. Emily grimaces as Jenna rummages through her belongings. Everything felt so surreal. She was really about to have sex for the first time. And not only was she going to have sex but she was going to do it with Jenna. A crush who happened to be one of the hottest, seniors girls on campus. When Jenna pops back up, she held a metallic blue packet in-between her fingers.**

" **Are you a virgin?" she randomly questions as she tosses the packet side to side, eyeing Emily particularly for her answer.**

 **Emily takes a deep breath, mentally debating if she should lie or not within the span of two seconds. She nods her head. "Yes - but I know what to do." she quickly inserts before Jenna had the chance to change her mind if she was having second thoughts.**

" **Have you ever had a girlfriend?"**

"… **No."**

" **Have you ever kissed a girl?"**

" **Not before you, no."**

" **Then how do you know that you like them?" Jenna tilts her head, not letting up with her sudden 21 questions, a few layers of clothes too late.**

" **I made out with you, didn't I?" Emily lifts a hand, pointing at Jenna. Is she really asking right now if she liked girls** _ **after**_ **everything they did getting them up to this point of having intercourse?**

" _ **So**_ **? Straight girls make out with other girls all the time." Jenna shrugs, carelessly. "Doesn't mean they would fuck them."**

 **Emily rolls her eyes, asserting her understanding of her sexuality. "Because** _ **I know**_ **."**

" **How? Do you get hard when you see one?" Jenna reaches forward and wraps her hand around Emily's now fully erect shaft with a smiling, lip bite. "Do you get "excited" when you see a pretty girl?"**

 **Emily's breath hitches a small gasp as Jenna strokes her slowly and teasingly.**

" **Does it work like a guy's? Do you ejaculate with sperm?" she asks with a burning gaze that she refuses to break.**

" **I guess…" Emily answers through a steady exhale, stuck within Jenna's light eyes. "But I can't get anyone pregnant. I'm infertile."**

" **So you're a virgin…who can't produce children…" Jenna repeats, releasing her hold on Emily. She continues to stare at her, making Emily feel tense having told her the truth as she taps on condom absentmindedly. A few long, silent seconds pass by before she cracks a smile.**

" _ **Always practice safe sex.**_ **" she says as she tears open the wrapper.**

"Being as inexperienced socially as I was sexually – I was very _naïve_ to hookup culture. People can casually have sex with others with no connection or feelings but I'm thinking….we just had sex. Like we got super intimate and shared a vulnerable moment together – _we're dating_!" Emily almost laughs, strictly from hearing how foolish she sounded just five years ago.

"Or, at least, that's what I thought."

Within the last five minutes, Alison felt overwhelmed, to say the least. She tried to process what she's been told, however, as Emily rides on with her stories, she felt stagnant on just _one_ piece of information.

 _The girl she crushed on has a medical condition that gave her a penis._

 _An actual penis._

But, although it was said, she can't pass the concept through because of their shared interactions. As ignorant as it may seem, there was not one time Emily has ever given off the idea that she was "packing" under the belt. Especially during New Years and she was pressed up against her. Typically with guys, you could feel some kind of poke right away with such close contact but with Emily…it was undetectable.

Then, the unstoppable thought about Emily's…package came into mind. Was it undetectable because she was not "large" enough to be undetected? Because she is not a male and it _was_ a genetic mix-up as Emily called it, did this condition give her a small size? Because it didn't fully develop? As she passed through the initial shock, now all Alison could do is wonder what Emily looked like naked.

And not in the sexual way she used to think.

"Our first time was awkward and wasn't anything _spectacular_ but I want to say it was enjoyable at the end. As soon as we were done, she used my shower and I expected her to stay the night because it was late." Emily rambles on, having no clue that Alison was trying extremely hard to stare down at the crotch of her pants.

"So, I'm trying to make things comfortable for her, grabbing some clothes that she could maybe wear, but as soon as she steps out the bathroom, she's fully dressed, tells me that she had somewhere to be, and leaves shortly later. It was…very abrupt but I let it go but then she came over a few days later and wanted a round two. That made me think that she liked me and wanted to develop something more. So, we did it again and afterwards, I thought that maybe we could just chill together but she leaves at the first phone call she gets. It wasn't even 10 minutes before she says she has to go help her friend with some paper or whatever. There you have two instances where it was like a "hit it and run" but I still gave her the benefit of the doubt."

Alison closes her eyes as she suppresses a laugh by tightening her lips together. Emily sounded so serious and grim with her words but she couldn't help but find humor in it. Not even she was so simple about sex and she's the same age Emily was at the time of her story. However, holding back every thought she's had, being so far about genitals and now sex, she decided to keep them to herself to avoid looking or sounding rude.

But seriously, it was tragic that Emily couldn't see a "fuck buddy" situation from a mile away.

"We didn't have sex for the rest of the week but I would still call her, still text her to say hey and see what she's up to. And, because of our classes, if I'm by the café or whatever and I'm getting something, I would maybe pickup an extra snack just to give it to her before class. I was just being nice because that's what you should do, right?"

Emily looks towards Alison for some sort of response and Alison nods affirmatively as a reply. But then, stepping back to really acknowledge what Emily was saying and what she has done, instead of looking at it as sad that Emily fell so quickly for someone, she saw how pure Emily essentially was in that regard. Something that most people won't do after a casual hookup.

"That's actually… _very cute_." Alison genuinely nods with raised eyebrows. "And very considerate of you to do – to go out of your way for someone like that when you didn't have to."

 _Almost like how you went out of your way for me…_ Alison connects the dots to unlocking more of Emily's personality.

"That's what I thought too!" Emily heartily agrees before her face began to wind down somberly. "The following week, she came over again and it was the same song and dance. But this time…it wasn't a pleasant after."

 **Emily rolls onto her back with a long sigh, smoothing her hair back before she leaves her arms rested above her head. She takes a second to catch her breath when Jenna begins to fix herself up. Propping herself up on her elbows, Emily clears her throat.**

" **So, I was able to rent The Dark Knight Rises and was thinking maybe…we could watch it tonight."**

" **Can't." Jenna gathers her hair together to put into ponytail, her back facing Emily. "I got a club meeting I'm supposed to be going to in less than an hour. Sorry."**

" _ **Seriously**_ **?" Emily tries to hide her disappointment by keeping her voice neutral. However, there is a slight crack because of course this would happen again. "You were raving on and on how much you wanted to see the new Batman movie, so I got it.** _ **For you**_ **. So you can see it."**

" **And I said I'm sorry but I can't watch it. If you would have asked me ahead of time instead of assuming I would say yes, you would have known it wasn't going to work out." Jenna walks out of Emily's bedroom, leaving the door open as she goes into the direction of her nearby bathroom. "Just return it." she calls out.**

" **How can I ask you ahead of time if you never answer my calls or texts and basically ignore me whenever we're in the same vicinity as each other?" Emily grumbles as she sluggishly rolls out of her bed. Picking up her t-shirt and pajama pants off the floor, she began to slip back into them.**

" **Every time I try to talk to you, something always comes up. I'm just tryi-"**

" **We're** _ **not**_ **together, Emily." Jenna reappears, bluntly cutting Emily off with clear irritation in her voice. "We never were and never will be so you can stop with that weird, clingy shit. It's getting annoying."**

 **Eyes widen and mouth almost dropped, Emily gawks at Jenna putting on her dark washed jeans. "** _ **You're**_ **the one that pursued** _ **me**_ **, not the other way around. You're the one shows up whenever you feel like it so we can have sex. I ask if we can hangout for a change, all of a sudden I'm** _ **clingy**_ **?"**

" **Yes, because I don't want to** _ **hangout.**_ **That's not what this is."**

" **And what the hell is this?"**

" _ **Fun**_ **!" Jenna huffs out. "Experimentation. A good time. That's what it means to be a fuck buddy, look it up."**

 **Dropping her face considerably, Emily stands there silently, taking in the words Jenna just tossed at her. "** _ **Experimentation**_ **…?"**

" **We are just supposed to fuck around and that's it. Not this whole** _ **sappy shit**_ **where we have pillow talks about the future." she throws on her leather jacket and releases her ponytail, fluffing her hair out. "I don't know where you got the idea that it was anything else."**

" **We've been having sex continuously-"**

" _ **Wow**_ **, you made me cum, Emily.** _ **Bravo**_ **." Jenna cocks her head at Emily with a slow and mocking clap. "It is literally not hard to do and definitely isn't not a bonded contract for a relationship. I mean, c'mon.** _ **Let's be realistic here**_ **."**

 **Emily defiantly crosses her arms, gritting her teeth together. "What is** _ **that**_ **supposed to mean?"**

 **Jenna scoffs, not believing that she's dealing with this. A few seconds pass and Emily did not bulge as she now glowered at her. Then, reality hit her. Emily seriously needed it spelled out to her.**

" **You're a chick with a dick, Emily. You can do the math." Jenna shakes her head as she grabs her shoes and began putting them on. "I had sex with you just to see what it's like - the whole softness of a woman with the penetration capability of a man thing.** _ **That's it**_ **. Do you really think anyone would want an active relationship with you? Especially with you being a "** _ **lesbian"**_ **?"**

 **"What the fuck were those air quotes for?" Emily mirrors Jenna's hand gesture by quoting her emphasis on the word lesbian. She felt herself getting hotter by the second as some** _ **girl**_ **felt like she had the gonads to disrespect her under** _ **her**_ **roof.**

" **Hello,** _ **genius.**_ **Lesbians don't like dick, if you haven't noticed." Jenna rolls her eyes. "You should be on your knees, grateful that I slept with you as many times as I did, let alone at all. It's not hard to see why you've never had a girlfriend, or a kiss for that matter, but if you keep it up with this weird, overbearing shit, you will never find one. So, big tip, if you want a chance at some girl being interested in you, you'd be better off chopping that thing off before you try to force anything onto her." she nonchalantly points to Emily's pants with a condescending sneer before she turned around to look at herself at Emily's dresser mirror.**

 **With hot tears filling to the brim of her eyes and arms tightly crossed against her chest, Emily's hands began to tremble uncontrollably. Opening her mouth, her breathing pattern was unsteady and made it hard to speak. However, her voice lowers two notches as so does her bowed head as she glared at Jenna.**

" **Get….the FUCK out of my apartment." she growled dangerously.**

 **Jenna spins around with a raised brow, challenging her. "Or what?"**

" **Or else I'll** _ **drag**_ **you out."**

" _Are you fucking serious_?" Alison grilled as she sat hotly in her chair, listening to how the event unfolded. "You should have said that her insults are worth shit because _she_ had _your_ dick in her mouth."

As soon as her words left her in a moment of anger, Alison instantly regretted it. Especially with a situation as complex as Emily's, maybe those exact choice of words weren't the best to say.

" _Sorry_. I shouldn't have-"

"No, it's fine." Emily dismisses her apology, uncaringly. "I ended up tossing her stuff out into the hallway but, of course, she didn't leave until screaming out, " _you fucking tranny_ " for the whole floor to hear."

Alison raises a hand to her face, unsure on whether to run her fingers through her hair or rub her eyes, she does this small number of back and forth before she opted to covering her entire face in frustration. All the little humorous things she was thinking about Emily's story flew out the window and was replaced with rage. Sure, Emily might have been naïve to the whole hook-up situation but Jenna was completely in the wrong for taking advantage of someone already teetering on the edge of insecurity. And to disrespect her like that? Someone as sweet as Emily? Seeing how softhearted she is now, she could _imagine_ how adorable and lovable she was five years younger. But to degrade her like that after using her? Alison was on the verge on flying off the handle.

"What's this bitch's name? Her full name?" Alison asks, trying to remain calm with an expressionless face.

"Jenna Marshall. Like I said, this was back in 2013 and she was graduating so who knows where she is now. _And who cares_." Emily slouches with the drop of her head, nestling her hands anxiously in-between her legs.

Alison glances over at Emily brooding and reaches out to her again, putting her hand on the side of her warm face this time. "I'm _so sorry_ , Emily. I can't even imagine how you must have felt. Despite it all, you're a very strong person to walk tall past that."

Emily leans her head into Alison's palm as she looks at her with the first tear falling out of her eyes.

"No… _I wasn't_." she sniffles, finding it hard to stare into Alison's eyes as the seconds go by. She turns away to wipe her face, mentally cursing herself for breaking down in front of her.

"From that night, I spiraled into a very, very dark place. I felt broken with no grasp on anything, not even my own identity. I'm young, only have _two_ friends in my life, my best friend was murdered because of me, I'm unworthy of love, no one likes me and if they did, they would surely ridicule me later. I was nothing and I had nothing."

Suddenly, the heat fuming from the vents in front of her felt hotter than usual, adding to her discomfort as she closes her eyes and takes in a shaky breath.

"Her words felt like I was ripped open by a heavy caliber machine gun and was left with a gaping wound, bleeding out while I staggered across the earth alone. It's like my screams would echo through the winds that carried my cries but nobody hears me."

"Your friends didn't see your pain? Where were they?" Alison aggressively asks, all in a very concerned nature. She, in no way, anticipated her morning to go the way it's been unfolding. From being annoyed by Emily to feeling like absolute shit for even having those thoughts towards her, she definitely felt like she was on an emotional rollercoaster and it's not even 1pm.

"They saw it but didn't know how deep the venom rotted my insides. Mona, however….she's a very intuitive one." Emily's lips withered the energy to form a small, half-smile. "Very intelligent girl. While my other friend, Spencer, is just as intelligent as she is, I think Mona felt me on a different level. I think she heard those silent screams like how a dog would hear a pitch undetectable by human ears."

 **Walking down a quiet hallway, juggling an assortment of objects in her hands and arms, Mona was able to free a hand to knock on Emily's apartment door. She patiently awaits to be welcomed in when brief seconds turn into long, drawn out seconds. Mona knocks again, this time with a little more force behind the contact to get Emily's attention if she didn't get it the first time. She made sure to text her, at least, so it wasn't that much of a spontaneous visit and give her the heads up she was coming. However, after Mona knocked, there seemed to be no kind of answer on the other side.**

" **I know you're home, Emily." Mona digs into her purse that hangs off her opposite arm until she comes across a specific key. A key that was a copy of Emily's apartment key, something she made "for emergencies". In her opinion, any time she came over and need face to face access to Emily, it would be considered an emergency.**

 **She unlocks the door and walks into the apartment where she hears muffled music playing in the distance.**

" **Emily!" Mona calls out as she closed the door behind her. "I sent a text, I knocked and you didn't answer! You can't get mad at me this time for walking in!"**

 **She walks towards Emily's nearby kitchen counter and rests down everything she carried as if she lived there. She stretched her sore limbs, glancing around for an Emily sighting before she went back to her things. Maybe she was in the bathroom.**

" **With everything that has been happening lately, I thought I'd make you a little goodie bag. Yes, it sounds corny but I think you'd like it." she projects her voice loud enough to be heard in the distant rooms.**

" **It has all the stuff you like to help get your mind off things like…popcorn balls," she sorts through the bag of items, announcing the items she brought with her. "Combos, the pizza kind, just how you like them. Some fruits, new magazines, I even went by that gamer place in the mall and I found that computer game we played a while ago. The Game of Life? It was literally only 50 cents. We are totally playing it with Spencer."**

 **The apartment stays silent apart from the music still being played in the background. Mona waits a few more seconds before she resumes.**

" **But yeah, I got a whole bunch of goodies here for ya and I think it's time you come out to greet me and not hide like you found out I cheated with the nanny."**

 _ **Silence.**_

 **Mona crosses her arms. She knew Emily wasn't out because her car was in the parking lot. Ever since "The Jenna Thing", Emily has been extremely reclusive to all kinds of social contact and she understands why. She also understands that it isn't healthy to coop yourself up in a room for 80% of the day and she wanted to do something nice for Emily. Let her know that she still has a friend that will never abandon her, no matter what. But in order to let her know that, she has to see her first.**

 **Before she was able to take a step, a white slip of paper posted on the front of Emily's refrigerator caught Mona's attention. She looks past it but it was just milliseconds until the need to read it plagued her entire existence. Not intending to be nosy and meddling into Emily's business, of course, but a brief glimpse wouldn't hurt.**

" _ **For all needed information, on my desktop there is a sole folder with my name on it. Inside, there are several documents saved that might answer any questions that should arise. Thank you**_ **." Mona mumbles to herself. Narrowing her eyes, she reads it for a second and third time, trying to understand the puzzling context of the note as a loud thud is heard.**

 **Not knowing if it came from within the apartment, possibly the people above them or even outside the apartment in the hall, Mona shakes her head, moves back to the counter to grab her gift bag, and begins walking towards Emily's sealed off room. Just stepping foot into the small walkway, Mona halts in her steps and raises her hand to her nose in reflex, her face scrunched up as fumes hit her senses all at once.**

" _ **What the hell**_ **…" Mona mutters under her breath, staring at Emily's closed door as the once muffled music became louder and more distinct as an older alternative genre. The smell was strong and undeniable. A smell you would typically come across from a college student.**

" **Are you in there getting stoned, Fields?" Mona asks loudly over the music with a chuckle just as she approaches the door and twists the handle open.**

 **The music clears up at a noisy volume when Mona's eyes witnesses Emily jerking above the ground, legs kicking the air as she tries to get some sort of grasp on the rope knotted tightly around her neck that suspended her from her bedroom closet. The electric shock rips through Mona's entire being as if her body was shoved into a sub-zero freezing tub of water when she made eye contact with Emily's bulging, panicking brown eyes. Letting out a traumatic shriek, Mona drops her bag onto the hardwood floor and runs over to Emily's aid but trips on her own feet halfway en route from her sudden shot nerves.**

" _ **Nononononono**_ **!" She scrambles to a crawl until she got to Emily's furiously kicking feet above her head. Her sight becomes blurry with the hot tears that fall down her face as she stands and grabs a hold of both Emily's legs to raise her body up and release pressure from her neck. However, with the lack of Mona's strength and Emily's combination of height and weight, her struggles do more harm than good as Emily thrashes around in her hold, gurgling at the mouth.**

" **FUCK! Jesus, fuck!** _ **Fuckfuckfuck**_ **-" Mona panics as the music seems to be playing even louder than before, purposely distracting her.**

 **She quickly darts out of Emily's room, slipping several times along the way, into her kitchen and slams her body into the counter. In front of the knife set, she grabs a large serrated knife firmly by its red handle and sprints back to Emily.**

 **On the floor, she sees a heavy duty box kicked over the side, something Emily probably used to hoist herself up. Mona jumps at it, drags it across the floor to the closet, and stands on top of it, immediately reaching for the top of the rope and begins sawing away just as Emily's movements begin to slow down and lose its vigor.**

" **GOD, EMILY,** _ **NO!**_ _ **COME ON!**_ **DON'T DO THIS!" Mona screams as she belligerently cuts into the rope until the fibers break, accidentally slicing her hand in the progress as Emily's heavy body drops to the floor like a sack of flour.**

 **Wincing at her own pain, Mona jumps down to the ground and kneels by Emily's side, rolling her onto her back and ripping the noose from around her neck. Her trembling fingers sweeps Emily's neck to find a pulse as she uncontrollably mumbles unintelligible words to herself. She couldn't tell if this was her reality or some kind of twisted nightmare. Getting a faint yet active pulse, Mona begins doing CPR on Emily immediately.**

 **Putting all her energy into her arms, Mona swats open Emily's dark red flannel and pumps Emily's chest as firm and consistent as she could muster. She glances up at Emily's face to see that her eyelids weren't fully closed and showed a sliver of the whites of her eyes, making Mona inhale sharply a stifled cry as she continued to mentally count her compressions.**

 **Rhythmic melodies and vocals surround the both of them as Phil Collin's "In the Air Tonight" paints the score of the life or death moment like a movie scene as Mona pinches Emily's nose, lifts her chin, and blows into her mouth twice.**

 **"Don't do this. Do you** _ **fucking**_ **do this, Emily! Not to me! Not to Spencer! Not to your parents who love you-" Mona's voice harshly breaks off before she is able to finish her sentence.**

 **The rapid flow of blood smears all over Emily's shirt and face as she completes her compressions and gives Emily another round of rescue breaths before she begins compressing again.**

" _ **Wake up, wake up, wake up**_ **-" she begs, fighting the weakness of her body and the urge to just collapse and cry.**

 **Halfway into her third round, Emily's eyes rolls into focus followed by a harsh coughing fit, startling Mona instantly. Discombobulated and in a daze, out of reflex, Emily tries to sit up when Mona let's go of the little she had left in her and falls onto Emily's now breathing chest, hysterically sobbing. She raised her unsteady hands to grasp the sides of Emily's face, lifting her own head to look at her but ends up crying even harder when she sees Emily's low and red eyes up close.**

 **To know if she would have come just a few minutes later or didn't come at all, she really would have lost her best friend. Forever.**

"From that second on, she never let me out of her sight. She took me to the hospital to make sure I didn't suffer from any brain damage or anything and that same day she moved all her things in and became "my person", as she called it. She wouldn't even allow me to sleep by myself without her in the bed with me." A little laugh slips out of Emily as she reached into her bag, grabbing a bottle of water. With all this crying and emotional breakage, she felt incredibly dehydrated.

"We made a promise that we would not tell anyone what happened that day. Not Spencer, not my parents, anyone."

"That's why you freaked..." Alison whispers, her heart swirling around in the depths of her gut. "I reminded you of Jenna."

It was nearly impossible to label words to how she felt right now. If she was in shock earlier, she graduated at least two more stages since then. She's never dealt with this kind of personal drama, not at this intensity, and it overwhelmed her completely. Mixed emotions wasn't even half of it.

"I'm _so_ sorry if I ever-"

"It's not you, Ali." Emily swallowed her water, tightening the cap back on the bottle. "It's just that I was scared to dip my toes back in the pool, so to speak. And, to be honest…. _I like you_." Emily kindly smiles as she turns to Alison who returns a gentle smile back.

"If I like you and want anything to go anywhere, I have to be honest with you about things. I feel like this is a good start and in perfect timing for the New Year."

Alison silently nods for a moment before she reached out for Emily's hand, holding it in-between both her warm hands and looks deeply and sincerely into her.

"I'm glad you shared this with me, Emily. _Honestly_. I know how sensitive this all is and how much trust you must have in me to tell me this personal information about yourself."

The small smile from before grows in size as Emily feels a complete sense of relief from Alison's words. Last night, she was absolutely _dreading_ this conversation. She played out at least 30 different scenarios as to how negative things could go. Not that she thinks that low of Alison, it's just that you can never be too safe when it comes to guarding yourself. But seeing how things have turned out, and how Alison's thumb was gliding back and forth across the top of her hand, Emily feels like she could _breathe_.

"You're welcome. And thank _you_ for listening to me with no judgement - or not letting it show, at least." Dropping her eyes down to their hands and almost losing herself in a trance like gaze, she clears her throat.

"I don't want to hold you up any more than I have since we both still have things to get to. I'll, uh, talk to you later? Whenever you have free time?"

"Yeah, definitely. I'll text you." Alison nods as they separate from each other's hold and Emily grabs her things.

They share one more silent smile to accompany their goodbyes until Emily hops out of the warmth of the car and into the artic of the outside world. Alison watches Emily trudge through the snow out of the parking lot and into one of the buildings when she leans back into her seat, staring out of her windshield window.

" _Fuck_."

…..

With her knees up to her chin, Alison sits on her bed, mindlessly tapping on her bare feet as she reflects on everything that happened today. It was really the only thing she could think about, no matter where she was or what she was doing. All her thoughts were a ping pong match. Pros and cons. Back and forth.

She thinks back to New York. What were her feelings before then? What were her feeling after? What did she want?

She thinks about today. What were her feelings before then? What were her feeling after? What did she want?

The entire concept of Emily's condition was hard to grasp because she's never been exposed or taught about it. The closest reference she had was of mythical stories but even with that she knew it wouldn't be the best thing to fall back on. As soon as she got back to her dorm and got alone time, Alison went on a researching binge like she had a term paper due that night. It was like a whole new world had been introduced to her, however, she still wasn't able to swallow it all yet.

She thinks back to New York. What were her feelings before then? What were her feeling after? What did she want?

She thinks about today. What were her feelings before then? What were her feeling after? What did she want?

Are her desires still the same? Does she still have the same gooey feeling inside about Emily or was this reveal an honest game changer?

Was a part of her actually curious about the whole thing?

No matter what questions she has for herself, her mind tries to listen to her gut - New York and today. Although, the extremely grim imagery of Emily hanging herself did create intrusive distractions that kept flickering in her mind like a pop-up scare.

 _Don't judge a book by its cover_ has never rang anymore truth than it did today.

Alison grabs her phone and touches to open an app. Taking a picture of darkness intentionally, she begins tapping away at the keyboard, even using her finger to add an extra personal touch before she sent the private snapchat out from a burner account she had just made. After her medical research binge, she took a little detour to learn information on something else worthwhile.

Snap sent to xoJenMarshmallow

You: "What goes around will surely come around, bitch. **-A** "

 _ **What a chapter.**_

 **I feel like I have to say this right now because it will be taken the wrong way if I don't. There will be** _ **no**_ **A storyline in this fic. It was one, of a few, nods to the show for you guys to enjoy.**

 **I know this was a** _ **much**_ **anticipated update and** _ **I know**_ **it didn't go the way you've wished but it's for a good reason. Emily has spilled all and put the ball in Alison's court in a massive way. It wasn't even a bombshell. It was a nuke. There's a lot to digest about Emily's past and hopefully it gives you a clearer picture of who Emily Fields is today. As for Alison, she has** _ **a lot**_ **on her plate.**

 **I do apologize if certain parts became too hard to read. I chose not to put a warning in the beginning because it would spoil too much of the story or at least give an idea of where I was taking things so I hope you were able to push through it. I assure you that it was dreadful to write and took me days to finally finish.**

 **But this is what you get when you board the train of AM's. Unpredictability.**

 **Happy New Years, my good people.**


	7. Chapter 7: Pink Panther

**Well, hello. Nice to see your friendly face again.**

 **I know, I know. The sudden disappearance was troubling but I am back with this beautifully charming update. Before introducing you to it, I wanted to mention a few things, if you don't mind.**

 **First and foremost, thank you for all the reviews last chapter. It was a VERY hard-hitting, dark chapter and I was iffy about writing it especially with the suicide attempt scene. I'm glad the words crafted together were able to move you and allow you to connect more with Emily's character. That was my main goal, for her to be given a voice after being silent after all these years. You and Alison definitely are now able to see what kind of Emily we're dealing with here. She is undeniably different from all the Emily's I've ever written. I'm also happy for those who picked up on the PLL easter eggs I threw in there especially with "The Jenna Thing". I love doing small stuff like that.**

 **Secondly, even when it seems like I've left, please believe that I haven't and am working towards updating. With the constant reviews of being frustrated due to no update, trust me, I'm frustrated too. I promise I will inform you guys if I'm ever going on a break. I would not vanish on you randomly.**

 **Lastly, I quite enjoyed the increase of traffic this story has been getting from the very vocal naysayers. As much as they have trashed this story, shared it to others to ridicule, and have accused me of being all kinds of troubling labels, AoA is not stopping. Sorry. Nice tries, though. It was fun to read.**

 **Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for…**

 **Enjoy. From me to you.**

CHAPTER #7: Pink Panther

 _Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action._ **Bolded is a flashback.** (….) is an indication that time has passed.

The sounds of a television program runs in the background of Alison's thoughts as she stares at her phone. Laying in her bed, fully dressed with nowhere to go, she crosses her legs at her ankles while the sun begins to dwindle into a sunset outside her window. She impatiently waits for a response back to the text she sent. Although she had sent it less than 60 seconds ago, the anticipation was too much to bare.

She gazes back at her TV, halfway into an episode of a show she paid absolutely no attention to. She wasn't even sure why it was on but she figured she needed some kind of background noise during all the silence.

1 New Message

 _Today 5:36pm_

 _Emily:_ I'm at the library with a student right now. Will be done in about half an hour.

Alison sits up, reading the response back to her simple " _what are you up to?_ " text. It's been nearly two weeks since Emily's big reveal and while it was a throat-chop, speechless kind of reveal, Alison made sure she didn't allow that to alter any existing feelings she had. She decided to move in toddler steps with how she wanted to continue whatever relationship she began blooming with Emily. And Emily was more than fine to honor that request.

 _Alison:_ Which one?

 _Emily:_ Sterling.

Because of Emily's reveal, it forced all the tools on Alison's side of the yard for her decision making. If she wanted to leave, she had the right to do so. But, if she wanted to put things together and start building something, she also had that option. And with that, Alison had total control of what she wants to happen between them. Even if it meant she would have to be the one to initiate things because of Emily's fear of going "too fast".

Tonight, after much deliberation, is Alison's first attempt at building with her tools.

…

After walking ten minutes from her dorm to the Sterling Memorial Library on campus, Alison strolls through the many sections of the building until she spots a glimpse of Emily in the far distance of one of the common areas. To keep her presence unseen, Alison tries to blend in with the quiet and scarce crowd by grabbing the first book she saw on the shelf next to her and pulled up to an empty table, discreetly hiding her face all watching Emily from the other side of the room.

As far as she's been told, she and her group of classmates were Emily's first tutoring experience. And with their session being done, Emily has gotten requested by other students in need of extra help. Alison curiously stared as she saw one of those students appearing to be a peer of hers - A young, redhead sitting next to Emily, smiling brightly as they whisper and lightly laugh with each other. Alison's eyes narrow watching the redhead gaze at Emily, nodding her head every few seconds as she listened to her talk.

"Hm. How cute." Allison mumbles, almost inaudibly, with a flick of a raised eyebrow.

At that exact moment, Emily says something that triggers a muffled yet snickering laugh from the redhead, causing her to rest a hand on Emily's arm. Alison sighs deeply as she shifts in her chair, moving her eyes to the book she was supposed to be reading as she waited for Emily to finish for the evening.

…..

Almost 20 minutes past 6pm, 20 minutes past when Emily should have been finished, the redhead says her goodbyes as she grabs her things and makes her way out of the library. Alison waits until she is out the door when she gives up her spot. Putting the book away, Alison shoves her hands in the pockets of her jacket as she walked towards Emily in a leisure pace.

" _Sounds like you were having a riot. Care to share what was so funny?"_ Alison caught herself almost asking. Hearing how psychotic she sounded, she bit back immediately. It was way too early to show any of those traits.

"Guess who?" Alison sweetly smiled, approaching an Emily who was slouched back into her chair, holding a paper out in front of her.

Emily glances up from the document, a playfully exhausted smile spreading on her face.

"Hey, you."

"What are up to? Isn't tutoring done for the day?" Alison questions Emily's unmoving position as she rests her palm on the table, standing across from her.

"Yeah," Emily clears her throat as she sits up. "But I promised my student that I'd read over her paper. It's on how can research on hydrophobic-hydrophilic surfaces help create-"

" _Yikes_. That sounds like a boring way to kick off your Friday night." Alison shamelessly cuts in before Emily can finish. She really isn't in the mood to hear about anything in the realm of science.

"Well, I'm not doing anything tonight so I don't mind reading up on this, really." Emily replies. Looking up from the paper, she noticed a different look on Alison than before. Her eyes were more narrowed with a slight turn of her face that gave her a side eye and a subtle curve at the corner of her lips that made her appear to hold back a smirk.

"Unless….you….want me to do something?" Emily switches up as she tries to translate Alison's expression accordingly.

Her side-eye turns into a bright smile as if Emily said exactly what she wanted to hear. That she would be free tonight.

"The carnival is in for the weekend and I thought we could go. Me and you. Play some games…get on some rides..." Alison tries to persuade her. "It'll be fun."

Emily grimaces, lifting up the paper. "Yeah, but I really need to read-"

"Is that paper due tomorrow?" Alison asks bluntly.

"…No."

"When is it due?"

"Monday."

"You have the entire weekend to review it and give it back to her, Emily. She's not going to _die_ if you don't give her a response right away." Alison reminds her as she walks around the table and helps Emily put her materials together and into her bag.

Without much resistance, Emily had no choice but to follow suit and pack up since Alison seemed to really want to go out. She was right, she didn't _have_ to give her feedback right away. Besides, if Alison wanted to go out, why would she turn her down? For a night of reading, no less. This could be their first real date. Isn't that what she hoped Alison would allow them to have? A chance at trying things out? Emily quickly snapped out of her "tutoring" mode and decided she was going to go out to the carnival tonight.

"Alright, let's go." Alison clears off the table, holding one of Emily's textbooks close to her chest. "We're taking your car because I walked here."

Emily's eyes snapped up at Alison just as she turned and walked away.

"Wait, you _walked_? _In the cold_? _From where_?" Concerned by this remark, Emily quickly slings her bag over her shoulder and pushes her chair in before she tries to catch up to Alison's fast pace march.

"You know I could have picked you up, right? Why didn't you text me?"

…

Driving about 25 minutes into the city of Bridgeport from New Haven, they arrived to the said carnival Alison spoke of. With the now night sky looming over them and the bright colorful lights creating an attraction for all those around, it joins them in their fun as they paid for overpriced tickets, wandered around, hoping on rides, and trying a hand a random games.

However, somebody couldn't get let the games go.

"Alright, gimme another. I _got it_ this time."

"Emily."

" _Nonono_ , I got this! The other ones were practice. I can do it."

Emily hands the game worker another three dollars in exchange for three more softballs. Alison stands next to her, crossing her arms as Emily rolls her shoulders and readies herself. With laser focus on the large milk jug in front of her, Emily lightly tosses the ball up towards the top opening just for it to bounce off the rim.

" _Dammit_." Emily hisses under her breath. She shakes her head, forcing air out of her mouth before she looks up at the jug once more for another toss inside.

The ball rolls around the rim just to fall off the side.

"What the hell!" Frustration boils within Emily with yet another miss.

Over her losses, Emily stands firmly with her eyebrows pinched and face tight. She grips her last ball securely and swings her hand upwards, releasing it into the air…..

Hitting the rim again.

"Come on!" Emily spins around in denial with her arms in the air. Before another second went by, she dug into her inner jacket pocket.

"No." She shook her head with defiance. "No, I'm going to get this. That panda is mine."

As soon as she pulls out her wallet, Alison lunges for her hand.

"Noooo, you're _not_." she yanked it from her in attempt to save her from herself. "You're done here."

"Alison, this is so easy!" Emily whined, pointing at the game display as the worker patiently waited for her to pay him some more for extra tries.

"Is that why you spent already $12 here and are about to make it $15? Just to throw a ball into a jug?"

"But I got this!"

"You'll live, Emily. Let's go." Alison grabbed her arm and turned her around to walk away from her own destruction. If she didn't step in, she's sure Emily would have blown over $20 easily trying to win that game.

"….I could have gotten it." Emily grumbles with irritation.

"You probably would have." Alison agrees. "And you probably would have made that guy bank too."

Emily sighs aloud, her breath creating a mist of fog in front of her as her eyes scanned the scene. "I'm going to get you one of those big, stuffed animals somehow. One way or another."

Alison shook her head with a small smile creeping on her face. After a few bogus games, they came across the milk jug toss and Emily felt really confident she could win it and get the big prizes for her. Too bad Emily almost gambled her pockets away to do so. But she couldn't lie. The gesture was adorable.

"What do you feel like doing next?" Emily allows the game to wither into the past. "Anything look interesting?"

"We can try out the food they have. I'm in the mood of something tasty and…..fried."

"Fried Oreos?"

"I said tasty not heartburn inducing."

Emily cracks a laugh as they both walked towards the food area where multiple booths were tented right next to each other. The sweet mixture of cooking scents made Emily's mouth water the closer they got. The sugar in the air was intoxicating. It made her realize how long it's been since she's actually eaten something

"What about something like…." Alison trails off as she reads each sign above the food booths until one of them caught her eye.

"Funnel cakes."

"Ah. Funnel cakes." Emily repeats with a nod. "The crack cocaine of carnivals and fairs. Perfect."

And honoring Alison's wishes, they have a moment of downtime and enjoy all things grease and unhealthy - Alison getting her funnel cake and Emily settling for some corndogs and fries. From people watching to listening to a random performer who decided to entertain the eaters and those walking past, Alison finds her eyes set on Emily several times. Ever since that reveal, she would think about Emily more than she ever did. Her thoughts were multifaceted and overpowering. Even when she shouldn't be thinking of Emily, she can't help but to let her mind wander and distract her from whatever was in front of her. But as of this week, Alison has had a specific thing in mind that she kept falling back on.

…..

After indulging in their snack break, the girls continue to stroll through the carnival, getting on several more rides. They begin to reach the back of the lot when a voice calls out to them.

"Hey, you look like you got a good swing. Why don't you try it out on my bag here?"

Alison and Emily's attention turns to a gentleman somewhere in his 30s, standing next to a red and black arcade game kind of machine with lights flashing all around it and a red speed bag attached to the front, enticing stranger to try it out. He beckons them over to the side. Curiously, they bite the bait with Alison leading in front.

"Five dollars for three tries at hitting this bag." He begins to explain with a fast paced speech, rubbing his hands together as he spoke. "If you get to a certain number, you'll get a prize. Having three chances worth of releasing frustration and getting a prize for five dollars? Sounds like a steal to me."

As Emily eyes the machine, Alison crossed her arms, skeptical at this setup. "What's the catch? Is that bag made out of sand or something?"

"No sand, no catch! Just a test of strength. Almost like those hammer games where you slam it down and try to ring the bell. It's like that." his thick New England accent assured her.

Alison looks over at Emily for approval. "You wanna try this?"

"Why not?" Emily simply shrugs. "We've tried everything else."

With the silent agreement, Alison reaches into her small bag strapped around her and pulls out a five, handing it to the guy. She tells herself this will be their last game because she cannot afford to pay out of pocket anymore. The worker happily accepts her admission and starts it up for them, explaining how all they have to do is hit it and it computes the power of the strike on the screen from 1 to 999. Alison assumes Emily is going first until Emily insists that she take the first try.

Staring at the speed bag, Alison walks up to it, cocking her right arm back and slams down her hand on the bag, knocking it up into its small compartment.

"And there she goes." The employee rests against the machine as they all watch the electronic numbers speedily climb from the momentum. After a few seconds it slows down before the red numbers finally stop.

"724." he announces with a pout of his lips. " _Impressive_!"

Emily on the other hand gawked at the screen in stunned amazement.

"724 out of 999? All of that from a slap?!"

"That means you don't ever want to get her angry." the guy covers the side of his mouth like he's telling a secret, however, Alison hears him loud and clear and proudly takes the victory with a devious smile.

"Nope." she brags, raising the hand she slapped the bag with. " _This hand_ ….is of mass destruction."

With a small chuckle, the worker turns to point Alison at his prize display filled with stuffed animals of all sizes and various amounts of toys from yo-yos to glow in the dark vampire fangs.

"Alright, sweetheart, you can get one thing you want from here on down."

Alison ponders for a second, checking out her options before she extends her finger towards a purple plush monkey, sitting with its long limbs on its lap with a large smile on its tilted head.

"Can I get that purple monkey?"

The guy pulls out a claw stick and pinches the monkey in its grasp and brings it down for Alison.

"With this one, it has velcro on its hands so you wrap them around and can stick them together." he informs her as he passes over the little fellow. Alison holds it to her face like she was holding a kitten, smiling at its goofy grin.

"Looks like it's your turn now." the employee snaps Emily out of her gaze of staring at Alison with her new toy with a small smile on her face.

"Hm?" she raises her brows, not hearing what he said.

"You gonna take a swing? There's two more chances left."

"Oh, right. Yes." Emily shakes her head, loosening her arms. "I'll try it."

With Alison and the man waiting, naturally, on-lookers from people walking past them slow down to check out the game, seeing if it was something they wanted to try.

Emily stands with her feet shoulder-width apart, her left foot closer to the bag as she gets into a sturdy stance. She stares at her objective as she balls up her right hand into a tight fist. Shuffling forward, Emily throws a punch, skimming just the side of the bag with barely enough force to knock it up into its upper compartment.

Everyone's eyes snap to the screen as Emily grimaces in dissatisfaction, rubbing her knuckles from the bag that hurt more than she expected.

"611." Alison reads off the final number before glancing back at Emily.

"Yeah, I kinda…." EmiIy reenacts her punch in an awkward, self-recovering from embarrassment manor. "Kinda missed the aim with that one. I….that was bad."

"Oh man, you gotta try again. You gotta try it again." the worker enthusiastically encourages Emily as he pulled the bag back down for another go. "You gotta redeem yourself after that one. You don't wanna look bad in front of your friend here. She got 724 off a slap."

A smug smile parks on Alison's face as her hand lightly brushed against her new toy monkey.

"Now I'm starting to wonder how she got that high." Emily soothes her knuckles. "That bag is pretty tough."

With Alison continuing her prideful smile, the worker step up to Emily, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Let me tell you somethin'. I've seen chicks come and go with this machine and ain't none of them cracked past about 830. None of them. High 700s. Very low 800s but never above 830."

"She can get over 830." Alison announces shamelessly, either trying to spark some kind of forced motivation or set Emily up for failure.

"Oh, _really?"_ the worker cocked his head at Alison in surprise. "After a take like that?"

"Yep." Alison confirms.

"Hooo-ooooh! Now you _gotta_ deliver. She's putting you up on game in front of everybody!"

"I don't know why she is." Emily forces a smile in Alison's direction while Alison flashes one back, using the little monkey hand to mockingly wave at her.

"Hey, look. I'll tell you what." the guy leans over the counter of his display and grabs a white Styrofoam cup. "Tonight is a good night. People are _good_ , the weather isn't too _bad_ , I got a text from a girl I've been trying to hit up since junior year of college _soooooo_ , it's safe to say, I'm feeling pretty super. Give it another go and I'll make the deal sweeter for you. If you….what's your name?"

"Emily."

He swallows a quick swig from his cup. "Emily, if you are able to hit my bag and get past 830, I'll give you the top prize choices. Just because I'm that guy."

Now with a small crowd of five other people, two of them being children, being hyped by Alison and the worker that she needs to surpass the goal of 830, Emily takes a deep breath and readies herself in a stance again. Not only is her name and pride on the line, Alison is watching and there's no way she could botch this again in front of her. How embarrassing would it be that Alison can slap a bag and get over 700 points but she missed an object that was completely still? This is her moment to look good. She already lost almost every other game she's played.

Emily practices twisting her hips while throwing a slow punch, only focusing on the technique of her movements. She does this a couple times before she feels comfortable enough to try one last time. Alison watches on, chewing on her bottom lip as her eyes glazed over Emily's motions.

Pushing off the heel of her back foot, Emily shifts her body weight onto her front foot while turning her hips, thighs and stomach muscles slightly to the side. She forms a fist at the last moment before striking, tightening her fingers into the palm of her hand on impact with a grunt and a loud clash of the bag being slammed into its compartment.

"Goddamn." a voice is heard commenting from the background.

 _Fuck…_ Alison comments within the confines of her own mind. Almost every week she sees Emily in a new light, it seems. One moment she's an eager tutor, then she's a former drummer, now she has this apparent strength grabbed her attention right away. She doesn't know if all that time banging sticks have caused her to grow muscles but that flash of showing off certainly made her stop and stare.

Emily gawks at the screen along with everyone else as the red glowing numbers speed through the hundreds.

500.

600.

700.

800.

"Here we go, here we go!" The worker excitedly watches.

820.

830.

850.

900.

912.

" _Yes_!" Emily pumps her fist in victory but quickly goes to rub her now sore hand. Alison skips up to her, grabbing a hold onto her arm with a bright smile.

" _See_? What did I say? I told you that you could do it." she nudges Emily as the worker claps Emily on.

" _Well, damn._ You probably could knock a guy's head clean off his shoulders with that hook." he teases. "But, I am a man of my word. You can get whichever top prize you fancy."

Emily walks up to the display case with her eyes scanning past all the colorful options of possessions. Although she was the one that won, she turns to Alison instead.

"Which one do you want?"

Alison raised a curious brow. " _Me_?"

" _Mhmm_." Emily simply nodded.

"Well, _since you asked_ ….." Alison gladly sways her sights back onto the rewards with a crafty smile, not even going to modestly turn down the offer or act as if she would rather have Emily chose something for herself.

"I pick….. _that_ one."

Verifying her choice to make sure, Emily points the worker to largest toy hanging on the very top. "We'll get that one, please."

" _Alright_. One Pink Panther coming right up."

…..

Walking around with a large Pink Panther plush toy held under Alison's arm and the purple monkey hanging around Emily's neck, they bypass people glancing at them as if they wearing some sort of badge of honor. It was getting late and they knew it was nearing the time to head back toward campus after such an eventful time. However, before calling it quits, Alison suggested using their remaining tickets for one last ride to end the night.

The Ferris wheel.

Upon getting inside their personal pod with the door sliding shut behind them, they sit together on the bench as they are slowly moved up the railings.

"Wow. It's pretty toasty in here." Emily slides her hands into her coat pocket, pulling out her phone. "I expected it to be freezing."

Alison looks around the small pod, only seeing their single bench and the 360 windows all around them.

"There's probably a heater in here or somewhere since it's already cold outside. Maybe to enhance the experience or something."

"Good to know they're keeping up with the times."

Emily swipes back and forth on her phone before typing away at her keyboard as Alison watches on. Their seat moves forward slightly another level up in silence. Alison slightly sighs to herself as she smoothed her hand on her Pink Panther, looking out the window next to her. Inner-thoughts swarm her mind like static interference on a grainy television program. Her impulses became too overwhelming to ignore.

"I want to thank you for coming out here with me." Alison turns to Emily, her eyes falling on the phone still in Emily's hand.

"Yeah, it's no problem." Emily nods before she also twists her head into Alison's direction with a soft smile. "I had fun."

Alison springs forward into Emily just as Emily looked back down at her phone, planting her lips right on her cheek as she barely missed her mouth.

Stunned by this move with her eyes rather wide, Emily shifted her attention back on Alison as Alison backed up. Before she could say anything, Alison tries for attempt number two and kisses her correctly this time, pressing her lips onto hers.

For a moment, Emily sat there similar to a shy teenager being kissed by the hottest person in the room on the first round of "Spin the Bottle". The initial freeze, however, melted away just as Alison pulled back.

"Thank you." Alison whispered, looking into Emily's face with her delayed eyes slowly opening.

"Its….no problem."

Alison's fingers glide across the collar of Emily's coat as she kept the close proximity between them.

"Am I moving too fast for you?"

"N-no." Emily manages to push out, clicking the lock button of her phone and placing it back into her pocket without breaking eye contact. "No, you're absolutely fine."

Alison silently nods before she goes for another kiss. Emily responds much livelier than before, kissing her back with the same softness while Alison's hand rests on Emily's knee. As few more seconds went by, Alison works her way up Emily's lap as she pressed herself up against Emily within their rather small yet sweet kisses.

Alison's hand finds themselves inching to Emily's groin, causing Emily to pull back a bit.

"Uhm. I-"

"I know this week has been long for us with school and work and everything." Alison immediately kick starts, recoiling her hand back to Emily's thigh. "I just…want to tell you how appreciative I am of you tonight. Especially with you ditching a paper for a little time with me."

Emily chuckles with her eyes lasered on Alison's hand before she looks up at her. "I'd do this anytime for you."

Getting confident again, Alison carefully begins to circle Emily's inner-thigh as she raised her hand higher.

"Ali…" Emily breathed out with her chest slightly puffing from the deep inhales she started taking out of surprise.

Alison gazes intensely up into Emily's expressive, brown eyes. " _Can I do this?_ " she asks, barely above a whisper.

Stuck into her stare as if she was being frozen in time, Emily opens her mouth to say something but couldn't find the right words. As Alison continued to caress her, Emily felt the rush build up in-between her legs.

"D-do you want to? Do this?" Emily finally speaks up, stammering just a tad.

"Why not?" Alison shrugs. "It's not like anyone can see and I doubt they have cameras in here."

"You don't know that." Emily shakes her head with a forced laugh, scanning around the interior of their pod. "If they have heat, they could have cameras."

"They don't. They have cameras in rides where they can make money selling pictures and videos back to you." Alison reassures Emily's temporarily paranoia. "There is no profit in Ferris wheels especially when you can take your own pictures and videos."

" _Well_ ….then…" Emily reaches over Alison and grabs the Pink Panther, turning its head, facing it away from them and towards the window.

Deeply tickled by this rather innocent maneuver, Alison snickers into an entertained giggle. She looks at Emily with furrowed brows and a tight smile, trying to hold back from laughing out loud.

"Why?" she asked, pointing at her Pink Panther now looking as if he was put on timeout.

Emily rubbed her palms against her jeans with a mixture between a grimace and an awkward smile. "I guess I'm kind of nervous."

"Why are you nervous? You weren't nervous at the New Years' party." Alison raises a suggestive brow.

"Actually, I was!"

"When? Because you certainly weren't nervous when you kissed me at midnight."

"When? Okay, let's see." Emily scrunched up her face to think while she lifted her face up towards the ceiling. "When I first spotted you, I was taken _completely_ off-guard. When you pulled me off to the side away from everyone else and flirted with me over drinks, I was nervous. When you kept touching my thigh, I was nervous. When you kissed me for the first time, I was nervous. _Besides,_ if I may add, at the ball drop, _you_ kissed _me._ "

Alison's mouth falls out of shock. "What a fucking lie!" she gasps with a huge grin. " _You_ kissed _me_! _You_ initiated the kiss!"

"Okay but you _wanted_ to kiss me. And the thought of that within itself made me nervous."

Alison leans into her laughing, making Emily chuckle herself.

"Plus, I couldn't show all of those nerves too much because I didn't want to look bad."

"You wouldn't have looked bad, Emily." Alison regains herself after the brief moment of amusement. "You don't have to uphold this fake calmness if you're uncomfortable or nervous."

With a light headshake, she subtly switches up her demeanor and leans into Emily again, this time by her ear.

"But….you want to know something? Earlier with that game?" she asks, softly spoken. "The way you punched that bag was very impressive, if I do say so myself. However, I would be lying if I didn't say that it turned me on a bit…"

Alison gently kisses the warm skin of her earlobe.

"There was a lot of strength behind that…and I couldn't help but wonder….what other talents do you have?" she trails her kisses down to Emily's jawline as she gradually rubbed the front of Emily's dark blue jeans. "You certainly seem like a jack of all trades."

Using her other hand now, Alison begins to undo Emily, pulling apart her belt, loosening the button and taking down the zipper. Emily bites her lip and raises her head up towards the ceiling again as Alison gets closer and closer to doing something she couldn't take back once done.

Alison continues to soothe Emily with now neck kisses as she quickly warmed her hands up with a fast rub before she slips into Emily's pants. She comes in contact with the warmth of Emily's bare skin and so far, nothing feels that much different. Her curiosity was bubbling over but she had to keep herself calm and collected. She didn't want to make things awkward by going into Emily's pants and inspecting her genitals like a science experiment just because she was borderline fascinated by this condition once she learned more about it. As her hands move more south, the area where one would feel the indication of a clitoris, Alison came across the shaft. And just from the touch, it appeared to be rather flaccid and miniature.

Emily breathes in heavily yet quietly through her nose as she pressed her lips together. She didn't notice that Alison stopped kissing her and was nuzzled close up, staring directly at her. She felt Alison's small, slender, and soft fingers wrapped around her, tugging lightly at it. This was the first time in years someone else has touched her other than herself and the pleasure was building rapidly at an intense level.

"Are you okay?" Alison's honeyed voice floats out ever so silky.

Emily nods her head, still focusing on her breathing.

"Do you like it like this?"

"Ye-yeah. Yes." Emily exhales out, glancing down at her pants, watching Alison's slow movements. "This is….this is good. Fine. This is fine."

Now, Alison isn't the most innocent person in terms of sexuality, however, there still was a sense of exhilaration about this that she couldn't quite put her finger on. It made her feel daring, in a way. She glanced over at Emily who looked like someone who was experiencing a handjob for the first time – trying to keep cool yet failing. The thought of this being true sat with her for a split second before she remembered the whole "Jenna thing". This had to be at least her third time getting this kind of work done on her. That is, unless Jenna was as selfish as Emily described her. Knowing that, who knows what kind of self-interested sex Emily endured from her.

Alison smiles at her. " _Relax_."

"You are so pretty." Emily's words tumble out through an exhale instantaneously after Alison's comment. Alison tilts her heard, a light seeming to glimmer in her eyes as Emily felt herself getting harder by the second.

"I love your hair…and-and-and your face…and your nose." Emily stammers out, blinking rapidly as she is captured in Alison's gaze. "A lot of people probably don't talk about noses but they're like-it's-you have a really good nose. Like… _the best nose_." she awkwardly laughs.

Alison watches on humorlessly as Emily spoke like an out of control car skidding down a street with no breaks.

"I-I just thought you should know…about your awesome nose. In case you were ever curious about it. Or maybe insecure about it, which you shouldn't be because it's honestly a great nose. I mean, everyone has a nose but yours is a top tier nose. You know, I have a boring nose but your nose just fits your face and it's…it's so good. Like, don't ever get a nose-job because you don't need it."

Alison giggles, nodding along with whatever stumbled out of Emily's mouth with the over-showering of compliments. "Oh, now I'm never getting that nose-job, all thanks to you opening my eyes."

Kissing her with pecks several times, Alison can't help but smile into Emily's mouth because of how stupid cute she's being. Who would have thought from the moment she met Emily for the first time, all professional and put together, that she would turn similar to a cartoon animation of a little furry animal pressed up against a wall with its small chest heaving in exhausted pants from a racing heart. After stroking Emily for a few minutes, she went from using three fingers to stimulate to gradually using her hand to grasp the growing erection. Doing all the labor behind closed doors, the curiosity continues to overwhelm Alison tonight by wanting a front seat view of her handy work. She's been fondling Emily from inside her jeans and just by feeling what she's been feeling, she had some sort of inclination that there was more to meet the eye. The size difference from beginning to now was noticeable by touch. Now, she wanted to see.

Setting the hint of tugging down on the front of her jeans a bit, Emily moves to help, giving her the room she needed when Alison finally pulled it out into the open. Her eyes widen considerably at the penis in her grasp but attempted to control most of her facial expressions that could potentially pull Emily out of the mood due to second thoughts. Emily stares straight at her, however, waiting for some kind of reaction now that she was completely exposed. Luckily, it was dark in the pod and there were no extra lighting inside that would flash her to the poor carnival-goers passing by.

Alison continued her light jerking movements as she took in the sight before her. As ready as she thought she was for this sort of moment, having all sorts of imaginations of how it _could_ look like, she was still slightly taken back of the reality of it all.

Right from the jump, Alison noticed Emily is circumcised which was an interesting fact to behold. A part of her wondered what that process must have been like. Was this done when she was younger or older? Emily was also pretty smooth all around with the feel of one or two veins as she stroked. Unable to get a great look from the lighting, she appeared to be one uniformed color with a minor upwards curve. From her estimated guess, she was sporting _at least_ 6 inches as the girth took up almost three fingers of her fingers in width - a big difference from what she felt during the soft stage. When Alison first slipped in hand down below, it felt like the length of her index finger.

 _Hm. Grower and not a shower. Noted._

"How are you enjoying yourself?" Raising her head with a hair flip over her shoulders, Alison decided to fill the silence that landed between them once Emily's private turned public. "Still okay?"

"Yes." she agrees, talking slower than she did before. "I'm starting to wish that we were in a different predicament than we are now. I'm trying not to-" Emily turns her head to the side with her eyes shut as the throbbing continued. "get carried away here."

"What do you mean?" Alison asks as she releases her grasp, raising her hand momentarily to her mouth as she spat into her palm, just to go back to jerking Emily off with something more than just dry friction.

" _Oh my Go_ …." Emily breathed in deeply, pressing her back firmly into the bench seating with her mouth left open. " _Sssshit!_ "

Just as Emily was floating herself to cloud nine, the ride started slowing down, getting closer to the flashing lights on the ground level with people starting to exit the wheel.

"Ugh! Fuck!" Emily quickly jolts forward, Alison releasing her immediately. She tries to fix herself, stuffing her now raging boner back into her pants but it refused to play obedient and lay down without some kind of strained pain.

As their stops nears and Emily managed to zip and button herself up, the obvious bulge print was creating more issues. There was _no way in hell_ she could walk around like that.

Finally getting off the ride, Alison smiles at the operator, thanking him while Emily followed behind with a weak smile herself. She walked next to Alison back on the carnival grounds with the giant Pink Panther held in her arm, strategically placed in front of her.

…

Driving Alison back to her dorm, as they pulled up by the sidewalk, as close as Emily could get her, Alison once again apologizes for giving Emily blue balls, something that was not her intention.

"I don't want you to think I purposely did that to tease you or anything."

" _Nono_ , of course not." Emily waves her off, shaking her head. "I know you didn't."

"I…I can finish, if you want? It's no problem."

While the question poses " _who would turn down a handjob?_ ", the thought of their relationship just beginning with Alison jerking her off in her car in the middle of the night felt so cheap and indecent. Almost like she picked her off the street and passed her a twenty to yank one out really quick before she went on her way.

"Don't even worry about it. It went down anyways." she politely rejected with a soft smile.

Alison returns the expression with a light beam of her own before she grabbed her Pink Panther and purse, unlocking the door. "Well, thank you for taking me out tonight. I really enjoyed it."

"So did I. Now hurry up before your roommates start asking questions."

A chuckle comes out of Alison as she opened and stepped out of Emily's SUV. With her just about to close the door behind her, Emily calls out for her, reaching for something she was leaving behind.

"Don't forget about your monkey." she swayed the purple toy side to side.

Alison pondered for a second before she responded. "Keep it. Something to remember me by." she winked with a kiss motioned towards Emily before she closed the door and began walking, mirroring same sense of mischief she had during their first private tutoring class, with Alison seemingly flirting in her plaid skirt.

Emily sat and watched her disappear past the entrance into the campus before she drove off with a loud groan. She lied. Her legs felt like she was on fire and in need of a cold shower to properly release the heat.

 **Did we really think a condition was going to stop Alison from moving on with her feelings? Nope. Probably stalled her for a bit but nothing more. She's a very curious person who likes to explore the unknown. The train is chugging along with these two in a rather interesting manor. The question now is what happens after this moment? I mean, it's hard for you to act like usual after you gave a handjob to someone. The lines have now been stepped over. It's only farther down from here.**

 **:)**


	8. Chapter 8: Another Teen Movie

_**So I heard you guys talking shit and decided to come back swinging.**_

 **Hey guys. I know, I know, let's not get into the details of the long hiatus. It wasn't planned but you all know how life goes and can be unpredictable. I'm trying to tame these waters I'm in, guys. I did** _ **not**_ **forget about this story or my others. Thank you also to those who have messaged me during that time. I'm sorry if I didn't get to respond but know that I heard you and appreciate the checking in!**

 **One question I see that people have been wondering are about Emily's glasses. You'll see them again in this update but her glasses aren't everyday glasses but her reading glasses. They are real even though Alison theorized that they probably weren't haha.**

 **I love that you guys love these characters as much as I do. They are so different and I love their dynamics and how they play off each other. But I don't want to ramble on because you all have waited long enough so without further ado, enjoy!**

CHAPTER #8: Another Teen Movie

 _Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action._ **Bolded is a flashback.** (….) is an indication that time has passed.

The soft patter of keyboards being tapped on, pages flipping, and the occasional cough sets the hypnotic ambience of the Sterling Library that surrounded Alison for the evening. She stared at the words on her textbook but didn't actually read them. They were just black, little shapes on a white page with a few photographs besides them for visual purposes. She read the same sentence over and over about eight times, however, her brain couldn't process the meaning of the words.

Or more like _refused_ to process. She had other things on her mind that seemed to take priorities over her studying.

Her eyes shift focus to the left on Emily sitting next to her. The difference between them was noticeable - Alison struggled to care about her class work whereas Emily was lasered in to her laptop screen like she was deep into a PC game. With a tilted head resting on the palm of her propped hand, Alison twirls her pencil in between her fingers as she "studied" the points of Emily's face.

The tightness of her brows, creating dimple-like indentations at the top as she twists her mouth to the side, all in complete focus. She adjusts her black, reading glasses before balling her hand into a fist to rest under her chin. As she kept one earbud plugged in on the opposite ear away from Alison, Alison tapped the eraser end of her pencil on her bottom lip, her eyes scaling Emily up and down.

"You said you live in East Haven, right?" Alison asks in a low enough voice to not be heard by others but just enough for Emily's attention.

"On East Shore, yeah," Emily responds casually with a nod, her eyes not even leaving her screen.

"And it's an apartment, no?" she continues on. However, despite the sudden 21 questions, Alison already knows the answers from the first time Emily gave this information. At the moment, she is only playing forgetful just for conversational sake - just to watch Emily.

"No, it's a house," Emily runs a hand through her hair before she sits up and begins typing. "Two floor with a basement."

"And you brought this?"

"Rented."

"Hm," Alison bites on the pencil's eraser, slightly humored with a faint smile. "When can I see it?"

Emily is peeled away from her computer when she meets Alison's eyes shining with a glint of genuine curiosity. She has been swamped with research and although she's kept one ear out for Alison, this sudden questioning has caught her completely off-guard.

"See the house?" Emily clarifies. "You mean come over?"

With raised brows and the smile still on her face, Alison gives a single nod as the pencil is now rested at the corner of her lips.

"Uh...Well, yeah sure, I guess. If you want to," Emily casually shrugs as she relaxes back into her seat. Although, she was neither casual nor relaxed and suddenly didn't know what to do with her hands but cross her arms.

"Mhm." Alison sounds her response with a simple hum, staring at an Emily who decided to look back at her screen after a few moments.

"How come _you_ never invited me over?" Alison pokes with her eyes slightly squinted, anticipating what reply she's going to get back, almost like it was a game. Her questions are a baseball pitching machine while Emily is an anxious batter, trying to swing at the balls coming at rapid fire with random curves.

"I didn't- I mean I haven't...I-" Emily sits straight up again, trying to find the words, any words to not come off anything more or less than what she's intending while Alison waits patiently.

"I don't want to seem like I'm rushing or insinuating anything."

Emily's eyes dance around the other students surrounding them throughout the library as they sat in the middle row of tables. She lowers her voice beyond the whisper they were already speaking at as she leaned her body closer to Alison, nonchalantly.

"I just want to make sure everything is at a comfortable pace for the both of us."

"Me seeing where you rest your head at night is rushing things?" Alison questions bluntly, now narrowing her sights.

" _No_. Not at all," Emily skids into her quick correction like a driver trying to get control of their drifting car. "I just-"

Alison's soft giggle interrupts Emily, unable to hold back her laughter any longer as she shakes her head and repositions herself to go back into her textbook.

"I'm messing with you, Emily," she calms her nerves. "You're fine. No need to panic."

Emily's equally tense shoulders and jaw visibly relaxes as she smiles with a sigh of relief. "For a second, I thought I was on trial or something," she chuckles, now able to comfortably lean back into her chair.

Alison continues writing in her notebook, glancing over at the open textbook page while Emily figures to go back to her own work. She stares at her screen but can hardly switch gears because of her mind still reeling from Alison's sudden game of 21 questions. Nonetheless, she psyches herself out of it before she stretches out her fingers and rests her hand on her keyboard.

"You can pick me up tomorrow," Alison comments after a moment of silence, flipping through her book, still writing down notes. "Or you can give me the address and I'll drive there myself."

Alison flips her hair over her shoulder as she looks towards Emily with a smug yet mischievous, tongue in cheek grin.

"That'll give you enough time to clean up and hide whatever things you don't want me to see."

"...Okay...Tomorrow it is..." Emily drags out in agreement with a slight puzzled look on her face before Alison goes back to her studies. A few long seconds go by before the obvious slaps Emily.

"I don't have anything to hide, just so you know," she hurries to clarify Alison's assumptions. "I'm not messy or have secret things that I'm ashamed of. You could come over today and it wouldn't matter."

" _Mm-hm_." Alison hums, still focusing on her work.

Emily nods, hoping she got her point across. She was a bit hesitant to leave the topic alone, having a double take from her computer to Alison with her mouth open to say something. Instead, she just drops it.

Tomorrow it is.

...

With her day ending early from her last professor deciding to cut her lecture short, Alison stops by her dorm briefly to freshen up before she headed to her car and left the campus. The drive towards East Shore was fairly swift, in Alison's opinion, for someone who's never traveled in this part of the city.

She got off the interstate and followed her GPS to the address Emily gave her when she begins driving into a polished, suburban neighborhood with rather big houses (what the Connecticut market would consider big anyways). Knowing anything bigger than a closet would run you a fortune to live in, Alison wondered how Emily is able to afford living in such a location, near the shore, with every turn she made. Finally, the GPS alerts her that she has arrived at her destination. She begins driving at a slow crawl as she approached a tan-ish, grey corner house.

Just from the first glances, it looked small compared to the others. The long, one story, ranch style design was something she wasn't anticipating Emily living in. On the drive here, she tried to create the idea of Emily's house from her personality, her style, and car as some kind of guessing game like she did with her vehicle last year. Emily is collected yet laid back, her style is casual yet well dressed, and she drives a big, black SUV as if she's driving an entourage with her. But just like her wrong assumptions with Emily's imaginary vintage, muscle car, Alison realizes Emily is not as predictable as she once thought.

Alison parks behind Emily's car in her driveway and walks towards the front door, taking in the undisturbed coating of snow covering her lawn. Stepping up to the small porch, Alison rings the doorbell before crossing her arms to conceal some kind of body heat in this brisk and nippy winds. A few moments of waiting goes by before the sounds of moving metals click and the door is swung open.

"Hey," a smiling Emily in a basic grey tee and purple/black, plaid pajama pants receives Alison's presence as she pushes open the screen door, "Come in, come in."

Alison follows her instructions and steps over the threshold into the toasty house. It smelled of warmth in the winter. The kind of scent that would probably be called "Cashmere Woods" if it were a candle - something that wraps around you like a heated blanket in the cold, making you feel like baking gingerbread cookies while watching a Christmas film in front of a fireplace. It was comforting.

Emily's eyes sweep across the street for any neighbors passing by as Alison walks in before she locks the door behind them.

In that split moment, Emily didn't know whether to hug Alison or not as a greeting. _Would it be too much? She's already inside and the window for hugging was as soon as I saw her so if I do it now, it might be weird? But would I be seen as cold and unwelcoming if I didn't give her a hug? Would she want a hug?! Is it that important to do so?!_

Alison looks around the inside entrance, finally landing her eyes on Emily to make some kind of move or gesture. Emily awkwardly laughs at the idle moment between them before she clears her throat and extends her arm, pointing into the distance.

"So, if you don't mind, you can kick off your shoes, get comfortable, and allow me to give you a little brief tour of my little _humble abode_."

Alison silently nods as she takes the suggestion and slips out of her boots, leaving her in her tiny, black, ankle socks. And, without further ado, Emily began leading Alison through different areas of her 2,460 square feet home, showing Alison the more personal side of her. They pass through the open floor plan of her first floor; walking into the decent sized kitchen, the dining room with a sole table in-between the kitchen and the simply decorated living room, furnished with a rather large TV on top of an entertainment center, a couple storage cabinets, and a soft, black, sectional sofa.

 _"What I love about this couch is that it is a couch when I want it to be. But, if I wanted it to be more...I just pull out certain pieces and it becomes a "pit". Just because I tend to be a tired person at the end of days, so if I wanted to just pass out right here, at least I'll be comfortable."_

While on that side of the house, Emily also showed Alison the bedrooms that were all one the first floor - one she had as an untouched guest room and the other she transformed from a bedroom to her music room. Despite having all her drumming equipment and whatnot stationed in her soundproof-made room, she clarifies to Alison that she hasn't visited the room in while. She just never has the time anymore.

They make their way back towards the kitchen where Alison spins on her toes to face Emily with a deep inhale, hands jammed into her front pockets.

"So! What's for dinner?"

"Leftovers," Emily chuckles. A few silent seconds pass with Alison staring at her, not mirroring her lightheartedness.

"Wait. Is this one of those jokes?" Emily quickly asked, remembering how Alison kept giving her the run around the evening prior at the library.

"No," Alison blinks at her, unmoving and expressionless.

Emily's smile fades as she looks around the kitchen around them, trying to think on the fly. "Oh. Uhm...I can order something, if you want. I don't have much right no-"

"I'm _kidding_. Damn, you make this too easy, Emily," Alison rolls her eyes with an exhale of a laugh. Before Emily could properly react, Alison points in the opposite direction of the house, the side they haven't seen yet.

"Do you sleep over there?"

"Yeah," Emily crosses her arms. "My room is at the end."

"Well then, let's continue the tour, shall we?" Alison winks, friendly nudging Emily with her shoulder and walking off as Emily followed behind her.

...

Passing by one more room that Emily also converted into a office/study room, they enter the master bedroom - very simply put together, just like her other rooms. Alison looks at her surroundings from the champagne colored, queen bed with the square buttons design on the headboard to the matching nightstands and dresser. It appeared as if Emily grabbed the first modern bedroom set she saw from a Ashley's Home Furniture catalog, plopped it in the empty room, hung only one framed picture of some kind of quote and called it a job well done. There was no sense of personality, no real life, not only in this room but in almost every section she was shown. However, Alison didn't fault Emily for it.

 _If there was something that needed her eye for design,_ Alison thought, _it would be this house. Starting with this room._

"For only one person, why did you rent a place with so many rooms?" Alison casually asked Emily as she sauntered towards Emily's dresser, tapping her fingernails along the top before she stopped in front of the mirror to look at herself.

"Well, the pricing wasn't bad for the space it gives. About $940 a month," Emily crossed her arms, glancing around. "Plus, it gives me room for my things."

"What _things_?" Alison's light snicker sneaks out, hiding behind her remark despite her smirk still remaining as she began reapplying her lip balm.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, for Emily, she doesn't pick up on the sarcasm.

"Things like my library and all my equipment in the study room, the drum set downstairs, not to mention everything in the basement. The house seems big on paper but most of the space is from downstairs."

Alison turns to face Emily out of sudden curiosity. "You have more things in the basement? You didn't take me there."

"That's because it isn't fully set up." Emily smiles to herself like a blissful child who held a secret nobody else knew. "I can't have people peaking at my work in progress."

"It's just a basement..." Alison trailed off, not getting the apparent "joke" or cryptic message.

"Maybe...maybe it's not..." Emily bounces on her toes, grin smug and high.

With that remark, Alison's brows scrunched together for a moment before she released them, going back to fluffing her hair in the mirror. She made a mental reminder for find a way to sneak into the "basement" at some point of her stay.

"So!" Alison finishes her self-prepping and spins around with her hands falling to her hips. She stares at Emily for a moment as if Emily was supposed to read her thoughts and respond accordingly.

"Are we going to talk about it?"

Emily's smile fades into a more confused one, tilting her head to the side at this sudden yet vague change of discussion.

"...Talk about _what_?"

Alison stands there. Nothing said. No extra facial movements to give Emily a clue. She just waits for the lightbulb to flicker on in her head because there has only been one "it" that has happened between them recently and it was a pretty big "it".

Emily holds Alison's gaze in the silence, mentally racking over every event they shared until the obvious clicks.

" _Oh,_ " her eyebrows raises as her prior giddy appearance was replaced with now caution.

"I mean after that night, it's like we're acting like it never happened," said Alison.

A part of her found it weird that the next day and days later, Emily would make no mention of it. She would talk about the carnival, talk about their winnings and prizes, but would skillfully sneak around the glaringly huge occurrence that happened in the ferris wheel. Was Emily embarrassed? Was she upset that she was blue-balled? Did she not like it in general? Well, Alison would never know because it's treated like a secret, hoping to go away over time.

"I'm sorry," the apology slips out of Emily's mouth as she looked to the floor. Glancing back up to an expecting Alison, Emily shuffles her slides against the cold, hardwood and sits on the edge of her bed.

"What exactly do you want to talk about?"

"Do you think we shouldn't have done it?" Alison drops her hands by her side, slowly walking to stand in front of Emily.

"That _I_ shouldn't have done it?"

"I'm not judging you for doing that, if that's what you're worried about, Ali." Emily shakes her head with a little laugh. "Although pretty sporadic...I enjoyed it."

A mental check mark flashes before Alison, finally making note of thoughts being shared among them. Alison knew how she felt about it all. She was without regret because it was something she _wanted_ to do. However, every day that passed by without Emily even hinting towards that night made Alison feel as if she was trying to pull an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of act.

Alison claims her spot next to Emily as she walks a few steps and plops herself on the bed. For the first few seconds, it was quiet until Alison broke it in only a fashion Alison could.

"You smell good. What is that? Cucumber?" she comments after a whiff of Emily's scent hit her nose upon sitting by her.

A side smile creeps onto Emily's face as she looked over at Alison.

"You have a pretty good nose. Is that a secret talent if yours?"

" _Maybe_. You did tell me that you liked my nose."

"Ha! I embarrassingly did," Emily chuckles out, clasping her hands together and wringing them. The rambling of a person getting sexually stimulated definitely wasn't her proudest moment.

Alison watches Emily anxiously bite her lip, looking down at her hands. That's all it took. That's all it took before Alison extended her hand to turn Emily's face towards hers and leaned forward for a kiss. It was a rather quick motion, just so there was little to no room to stop it. Although, it wouldn't stop at just one kiss. No. Alison presses in for more, latching her lips onto Emily's bottom lip as her hand snakes down to her sides. She gently moves herself further up the bed, inch by inch, while holding on to Emily - trying to hint her as to where she wanted to take this.

They get a second to breathe from their brief separation, Emily kicking off her house slippers as she began to lay down on her back, elbows propping her up.

"Did you just come over to make out?" Emily curiously asked as Alison took the liberty to take off her coat that's gradually cooking her, now that she's out of the cold and in a warm environment.

"I don't mind if you did. I just wanted to know."

"No," Alison responds back, swiftly. "I wanted to understand the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Thought you would be the perfect person to ask."

Alison yanks her arm out of her coat, keeping her face without playfulness like she's done earlier. Despite now getting the hang of Alison's version of humor, Emily bites anyways with an impressive pout.

" _Well_ , that's something out of quantum mechanics, which is a bit more advanced from where you're at, b _ut_ I always encourage curiosity," Emily crossed her legs at her ankles, getting herself comfortable.

"Basically what that principle is saying is that we cannot measure the position and the momentum of a particle with a high degree of precision. Since electrons around atoms are clouds of charge of tiny mass, their position and momentum is uncertain."

"God, you're such a _nerd,"_ Alison scoffs, finally dropping her coat of the floor, now just in her pink, knit sweater. "A _geek._ A _dweeb._ If we were in one of those teen movies, I would be looking for a locker to shove you in."

Alison grabs Emily's ankle of the leg she has resting on top of the other and pulls them apart, widening Emily's legs before she crawls on top of her. She sits right on Emily's hips like a seat that had her name on it.

"Either that or forcing you to do my homework."

" _Oh_?" Emily tries to play cool and not show her surprise by Alison's sudden bold choices and instead, continues with the flow. "This doesn't turn you on at all? My word vomit of information?"

"Fortunately for you, it does. I can be pretty shameless about it," Alison flips her light, curled hair over shoulder, gazing down at Emily's plush, brown eyes. "There's something about a person exuding confidence in their knowledge. Not in a cocky way but in a way you want to sit in the same room as them and soak up every word they say. _That's_ sexy."

An unexplained explosion of warmth pulsed through Emily's body. She didn't anticipate it but she felt...validated, in a way. She's never heard anyone say that to her, let alone about her. Alison's attraction isn't solely on looks or position or differences, it's based on something Emily cherishes: her passion. Alison likes Emily because of her excitement for information. Out of all the people she's met in the realm of dating, that was definitely a first. A pleasant first.

Alison bows for another kiss, this one more peck-filled. In the back of her mind, however, she cannot stop thinking about how with her sitting on top of Emily, she can feel something stirring underneath her. She had the intrusive urge to gradually rock her hips while she talked but she didn't want to be torturous. Not just yet.

"So, you're not going to _revel on_ about what's sexy about _me_?" Alison only half jokes with a proud grin. "Most people compliment my _eyes..._ or my _dimples..._ or my _hair..._ "

"But that's only on the surface, though," Emily lightly shrugs. "Your eyes, your dimples, your hair, that's one of the first things people see when they look at you. So, if they compliment you on that, not saying it's not genuine but, that's equivalent to telling a chef you like the color of their pie or you like the shredded cheese on top of their lasagna. That's easy. Took no effort. Those are face value things everybody sees on the outside."

Alison's smile fades as Emily explains on something Alison didn't think Emily was going to sink deeper into. But she listens anyways, wondering what compliment was going to end up being used for her in this point Emily was attempting to make.

"A chef wants to hear about the inside, things you can only comment on through exposure. They don't want to hear about colors and appearances."

Emily pauses for a moment.

"Well, maybe some do but what they _really_ want is for you to compliment on how well the food is _cooked_ , how well it _tastes_..."

Alison's right brow subtly raises as she stares her down. She has been tempted to run her hand down Emily's chest, for no real reason, but resisted the urge.

" _So_ , I may have complimented your nose, which is pretty easy to do, but I would also say you're a great listener. As corny and typical as it sounds, that's one thing I genuinely like about you."

Alison lightly scoffs, almost rolling her eyes as she chuckles. "A great listener?" she looked back down at Emily. "Do you like my personality as well?"

Emily knew Alison was mocking her but she took it with a grain of salt. It did sound like a basic, generic compliment, she's well aware, but she meant what she said.

"When I talk, those who _know, know_ me, for the most part, I feel like they pity me," Emily begins. "Like it's my condition that's the one talking. But during tutoring, when you asked me about my likes and hobbies, that was the first time in a while where I felt good talking about myself. Proud even. Granted, you obviously didn't know about my situation until later but even when you did, nothing changed. You still wanted to learn more about me."

Emily sighs, holding back a small smile. Just that exhale made Emily, oddly, more aware of Alison's warm weight on her. How did they get here so fast?

"Now...things _could_ have changed for you and you're just really good at hiding your true feelings towards me but the way you listen, that's something I honestly like about you."

Without anyone being the one to initiate it, Alison and Emily's hands find each other and slide together with their finger intertwined, palm to palm.

"Plus, you have _crazy_ good memory," she compliments. "Almost like an elephant."

"You'll soon learn to see that'll be both a blessing and a curse," Alison smirks smugly as she leans down and presses for another kiss.

At that moment, Emily felt her heart starting to race like Usain Bolt trying to cross the finish line. But...she has to stay cool. Calm, cool, and collected. She is not starting to sprout a boner with Alison making the smallest movements on top of her. Nope. Not at all.

Alison pulls back from Emily's soft lips, catching her still having her eyes closed a second after they separated. It was a quick second but long enough for her to notice. Notice that Emily is definitely enjoying this moment.

"That was sweet of you to say, Em," Alison purrs out, charmingly, smiles matching her appreciation. "But if you imply that I'm faking this one more time-"

Alison wraps both her hands on either sides of Emily's neck, hardly squeezing but lightly adding pressure to her fingers to draw emphasis on her words.

"I'm going to choke you. Just...choke you until its lights out. If I was "faking it", I wouldn't have offered to come here in the first place, don't you think?"

"Okay, okay!" Emily laughs, the bass in her throat vibrating against Alison's hands. She reaches up to peel Alison's grip off of her and interlaces their hands together again. "I just have to make sure!"

There was something about holding Alison's hand that made Emily's heart flutter. But it was an anxious rush she liked. She hasn't experienced this kind of inner excitement in a long time. She raises their connected hands to her face, twisting it to kiss the back of Alison's hand as she gazed up at her under the lights on her ceiling.

"I do have a question, though."

Alison "adjusts" herself, shimmying her shoulders as she shakes her long hair behind her. Just as an excuse to grind on it.

"And what is that?"

"...Did you finally finish your Bio homework?"

And just like that. Deflated.

"Are you shitting me right now?" Alison responds pretty swiftly with her brows pinched in disbelief. Like a lightbulb, the switch of her attitude brewing within her was nearly immediate.

But Emily continues with a smile.

"I'm only asking because you barely did it last night and you know its due tonight-"

"Emily."

"I just want you to succeed, Ali," Emily assures her with soft doe eyes. As she looks at her in such an innocent manner, meaning the words that she said, Alison couldn't hold herself to be too agitated.

"And I don't want me being a distraction to hinder that. Especially when that paper is worth 30% of your grade. Not to mention the exam right after that."

Alison rolls her eyes, forcing a small pout. "What if I _want_ you to be a distraction?"

"Then, I'm going to have to say no deal, Howie," Emily replies simply with a frown.

The agitation comes right back as Alison lets out an exasperating huff, suddenly jumping off of Emily, and scooting off the bed. All while Emily chuckles to herself at the little temper exhibited.

"You knew I was going to ask about it. Why come here and think I was going to " _by chance_ " forget when I was getting on you for it yesterday?"

Completely straight faced, Alison picks up her coat from the floor and begins fixing the inside-out sleeves that she ripped off in pretty swiftly.

"Because I came here to fuck you."

Emily's lighthearted demeanor shifts with the words that just lingered in the air like a spritz of fragrance. Her laughing lips straightens and her jaw tightens. She knew something was happening but the blunt approach knocked her over the head.

Alison folds her coat over her arm, shaking her head.

"But I guess the only thing being done is my _class work_. This is what happens when you hook up with your freaking tutor," she scoffs, marching out of Emily's bedroom and down the hall.

Mumbles can faintly be heard in the distance as Emily stands on her feet, somewhat conflicted at what just happened.

"This one of your head games again, right?" Emily calls out, her voice filled with uncertainty now that she was left alone. "You didn't...you didn't come here strictly for that, r-right?"

...

Migrating from rooms not too long after, Alison has her textbook, notes, and laptop sprawled out on the table in Emily's study office. Emily sits next to her, to be of whatever help needed, focused on her own project she's been working on. She holds her assembled Lego creation to her face, inspecting it with a slow 360° turn through her glasses until she was satisfied with her progress and went back to her drawn out blueprint on the desk. They both sat quietly with some low Spotify playlist of Alison's choice playing, due to her inability to work in silence, however, you could hear more of Emily clicking pieces together than Alison's typing.

Alison sighs, leaning back into the office chair with her arms stretched behind her head. Her mind felt like TV static with loud white noise whenever she attempted to get one word typed into this word document. All she could think of was how it felt. The reaction of crawling on top of Emily, resting herself down on her hips, and feeling the soft bulge pressing against her. It's creating static in her mind.

"Okay, I need a break."

Emily glances over at Alison with squinted eyes, like a librarian hearing someone being a little too loud. "You literally just had one less than 20 minutes ago."

" _Well_ , I need another one," Alison quickly replies back. "You don't want me to overwork my brain, do you?"

Emily looks back to her Legos, just leaving the issue alone. "Of course not."

Alison stared at her while Emily continued with her work, digging into her tub of pieces and fishing around until she found the part she was looking for. Alison was going to ask what the deal was with that - with the Legos, wires, and whatever else electronic components. It looked like she was building a robot. A Wall-E kind of robot, actually. In any other frame of mind, she would ask why but at the moment, she didn't give a fuck.

"...What did you do when you got back from the fair?" a quiet question flows out of Alison after some time of silence.

"Fell asleep. I was pretty exhausted," Emily answers, not even looking up.

Alison raises a brow. "Is that _all_ you did? Just ' _fell asleep_ '?"

The tone she was sudden hearing stirs something within Emily, making her slowly peel herself from her hands to look at Alison, who lounged comfortably in her chair.

"Despite the fact you told me about being "fine"...I know you dropped me off still hard," Alison reveals, a matter-of-factly while Emily seems to fidget around, uncomfortably.

"So, I'm just curious..." Alison tilts her head with a poke of her bottom lip. "How did you handle that?"

"Uhm-" Emily forces a laugh, removing her glasses and folding it to place on her desk. "I...I, uh, took a cold shower, I guess I could say." she awkwardly scratches head. "Why? Why do you ask?"

Alison casually shrugs, turning her attention back to her computer. "Just wondering."

"Well, what did _you_ do after I dropped you off?" trying to turn the tables, Emily repeats the question in reverse to put Alison in the hot seat instead.

"Nothing. Just fell asleep." Alison responds with a sense of mockery slipping out of her concealed smile. "Sucks we were interrupted so abruptly, though. I anticipated just a little more..."

"More what?"

"I dunno...Something to make things spicy."

"Like what?" Emily keeps pressing.

Alison cranes her neck to gaze over at Emily, holding her eye contact as she motioned her fist by her mouth, moving it up and down as her tongue pressed into her cheek. If Emily decided to drink water at that very moment, she surely would have choked on it.

"You were going to give a blowjob? In public? For our first date?" she asked half flustered yet half amazed. Mostly flustered at just the thought.

"That doesn't scream romance to you?" Alison smiles sarcastically. "Just that idea alone isn't romantic?"

"Well, romance is definitely subjective. I'll give you that."

"I bet you would have never forgot it, though."

Emily goes to say something but the words vanish before she could even make her case.

" _Mm_. Point taken."

Seeing her computer went to sleep, Alison swipes on the cursor pad as if she was going to get back to work. Even though she knew she had no intention of doing so.

"I'm a pretty straightforward person and sometimes my curiosity gets the best of me. If that's too much to handle, I need you to tell me," in a more serious tone, Alison reminds Emily of her options. She is well aware that her brash and sometimes vulgar approach doesn't go over well with everyone so she wanted it to be known that Emily doesn't have to withstand it if it makes her truly uncomfortable.

Emily, however, shakes her head. "You're fine-It's okay. It's new but refreshing, at the same time. I can respect brutal honesty."

"Do I turn you on?" Alison wastes no time in shooting her shot.

This causes Emily to laugh. Not even a second after explaining that she can tolerate Alison's bluntness, here she is stumbled by it in a way she doesn't know how to answer. Laughing and keeping her eyes away from Alison is her only response. She hates how awkward she can get from situations like this but when Alison sits there, humorless, expecting an answer, Emily musters herself to go with the flow - let the conversation take her where it goes.

"Yes..." Emily exhales, finally, nodding her head. "Yes, you do."

"Since when?" Alison spins in her chair to face Emily with the sly upturn of her lips, thirsty to hear more as she leans forward. "How long has it been?"

"Oh god, uhm...I didn't start _feeling_ anything until towards the end of our tutoring. I got so used to being around you, almost every day, that the thought of us separating and never seeing each other again affected me more than I anticipated."

"Okay. You didn't start feeling a connection until towards the end but when did the thought of ' _damn she's hot"_ come into play?"

There Emily goes again with another chuckle. This conversation definitely is going where she thinks its going.

"I know that thought came up at some point," Alison boasts proudly.

Amused, Emily crosses her arms, getting comfortable in her seat with the widening of her legs. "That's very cocky of you to say."

" _I know._ But I also know my worth."

Silence falls as Alison waits for the question to be answered. She knew she turned Emily on and she knew that _something_ about her was sexy to her but she was all for hearing it being said. She wanted Emily to confirm and go into detail about it.

Bouncing her leg from side to side, Emily stews on her answer for a few seconds before she revealed the _"moment_ " it all began for her.

"That one night where...where you had on that particular outfit. The skirt with the thigh high socks."

 **With a spin to turn back to her seat, Emily's eyes catches the small lift of the ends of Alison's dark red, school, plaid skirt. Her sight trails down to her black thigh-high socks with the flats she wore that left a space of skin where the short skirt ended and the brim of the socks began. She quickly diverts her fac**

 **e to look away before she was caught staring inappropriately. She definitely doesn't want to be one of** _ **those**_ **tutors.**

Alison's tongue slides along her bottom lip like cheetah catching sight of her prey, using her feet to slide herself closer to Emily. This was like sweet, sweet candy for her.

"You remember that outfit?"

"Mhmm. It was we started the one-on-one tutoring. Also the outfit that was really pushing it with the weather we were having."

"You were staring at me, weren't you? All those moments I wasn't playing attention or looked elsewhere...you were eyeing me down," Alison and her honeyed, low voice coaxes Emily into confessing to her.

"I tried to be professional and not do that," she honestly replies instead. "But if anything, I was worried for your health. Short skirt in the dead of winter was a bold choice."

Alison couldn't help but smile. Whether it was from the almost innocent way Emily answered or just because she knew she was going to gain some kind of reaction from that fit, it only takes a few seconds for her to flip on the switch, back to her cheetah prowl.

"You know when I had that thought about you?"

Emily shakes her head.

"Right when we talked for the first time on the phone. When I was calling you for your rates, I thought to myself, _wow_...she has a really smooth voice," Alison explained with her hand landing on Emily's knee, making its way slowly up her thigh. "A luxury sports car driving on a freshly paved road smooth. Smooth like a voice you would want to hear calling a hotline late at night..."

Her hand creeps upward from her inner-thigh, until she reaches the front of Emily's pajamas pants. She traces the lined design of the purple and black bottoms with the tip of her fingers, ever so lightly. Never disconnecting their eye contact. She wanted Emily to see her.

"Then, meeting you that first night and how you challenged me. _That_ was bold. But hot."

Alison works to unfasten the single button on the groin.

"Bold because I _never_ back down from a challenge, especially when it's in front of people. But at the same time, it was hot because you had me speechless before I could even start."

Once prying open the entry of the PJ pants, Alison dips her hand inside, gaining a small reactive inhale out of Emily.

"Then from _all_ the other days afterwards. New York. All those late night texts. Everything up until tonight. How I was practically riding you on your bed. _And how I felt it..."_

Alison let's out a giggle through her bright smile as she stroked Emily steadily. She nods her head with a bite of her lip, lowering her gaze to her hand at work. Emily was now rock hard because of this personal attention she was receiving from Alison's warm hands. With her trying to breathe and listen at the same time, the control Alison had at this very moment was intoxicating.

"But this time won't be like the last time. No...I'm going to let you finish... _right_? Can I do that?" She asks gently, almost pleading sense as she pushes herself off her chair and drops to her knees in front of Emily.

"Can I help you finish, baby?"

Slightly arching her back, Emily briefly closes her eyes as the tension rapidly built inside of her like she was a shaken Coke bottle.

"Ye...yes...yes, yes, yes."

Alison gripped the smooth and erect, olive colored shaft that stood tall and thick inside of her slender hands. Alison dips her head to lick around the tip before swallowing it. Emily's let's out a strained, audible groan as the electricity strikes her from her toes to the top of her head, almost numbing her limbs along the way. Alison slowly begins bobbing on it, getting only two and a half sucks in before Emily gasps harshly, shoving Alison off of her right as she orgasmed. Fast, warm spurts of cum shoots into Alison's face, causing her to jerk back out of reflex, her face scrunched and eyes shut tightly. Emily heavily pants, not realizing she was coating Alison like a wet brush, covered in paint, being flicked at a blank, white canvas.

Until she lazily opened her eyes.

"SHIT!" Emily wheezed with now wide, wild eyes. " _I'm sorry!_ Fuck, let me-let me get something. I'm so sorry! Stay-stay right there!"

"There's nowhere for me to really go..." Alison calmly sits on her knees as she feels the sticky substance gradually glide down the bridge of her nose.

"Okay, give me a second-" Emily quickly jams her penis back into her pants and rushes out of her study room, making long strides to her master bathroom in the quest of finding some kind of wipe.

"Fuck! You fucking loser. You dumbass. Why did you do that?! _Shit!_ " Emily cruelly whispers to herself as she looks around the bathroom in a frenzy, settling one a few paper towels.

Some slow, top 40 hit continues on merrily, at a low volume, from the speakers of her laptop as Alison patiently waited for Emily's return. She didn't want to risk moving or opening her eyes. Everything happened so incredibly fast that she couldn't process what was happening until a stream hit her cheek like a surprise water gun attack. She's never let someone cum on her face before but as she's now learned...never say never.

 _I guess this is how pornstars feel after a long day at work, huh?_

"I'm _so, so_ sorry, Alison," Emily races back to the room with a folded paper towel in each hand, one damp and the other dry. "I didn't...I didn't anticipate that happening at all. I'm so sorry."

Emily squats to Alison's level, grimacing at the sight of her face before she carefully begins wiping the mess without smearing or removing her makeup.

"I think I would appreciate a warning next time," Alison coolly suggests, keeping herself rather collected, much to Emily's surprise. "Just a _quick_ heads up would help me a lot."

"I know and I'm _sorry_. I couldn't get the words out quick enough. I swear it wasn't intentional.

After being cleaned up like brand new, Alison flutters her eyes open to a very stressed looking Emily. A huge difference between how she was just three minutes ago.

"Can you hand me my purse, please?" Alison points behind her laptop to her bag. Emily swiftly grabs it and passes it over, standing up in the process to throw away the paper towels. However, she stares at the wall, not knowing whether to put her hands on her hips or cross them.

"At least you didn't get any in my hair. _Then_ I would have gotten pissed," Alison checks over herself in her compact mirror before she dug around for her mascara to reapply on her lashes. "It took me way too long to perfect these waves."

"I'm...I'm so embarrassed," Emily turns around, painfully pushing out a wavering smile to keep her eyes from welling up. "Please, don't tell anyone that happened."

Alison lowers her mirror. "Why would I tell anyone?"

Emily feels the heat rising in her face, the tension in her throat, her eyes beginning to sting.

"I..." she sucks in her words that suddenly disappeared. This is the exact opposite of how she wanted to react, especially in front of Alison. All it takes is for one mishap to occur before she falls apart. She really hates that about herself.

"What was that 15 seconds? _Maybe_ 2 minutes all together? I can't even-" Emily's voice cracks, giving way before she could even finish. She presses her lips together with a shake of her head.

 _Un-fucking-believable_.

"I'm not upset with you, Emily. Nor will I go all crazy and bitch you out for this. This kind of thing with coming pretty fast happens," Alison shrugs. "It's normal."

She goes back to her mirror, finishing her last flicks of mascara before she moves to reapplying blush to her cheeks.

"And to be honest, I'm kinda seeing it as a compliment."

Emily twists her neck, bewildered at how Alison is taking all of this on stride. Don't get her wrong, she is more than grateful for this lax reaction, it actually eases her nerves somewhat but still. She would think most girls would find themselves disrespected by the act that just happen. But Alison...she's barely affected? Why?

"A compliment? How is _that..._ complimentary?"

Snapping her mirror closed and tossing her things back into her purse, Alison finally rises to her feet. She walks over to Emily and wraps her arms around her neck with a sigh.

"Because I'm just _soooo_ sexy, _soooo_ _alluring,_ that you couldn't control yourself," Alison beams gleefully, swaying herself side to side. "You just made me feel very powerful. Cleopatra doesn't have _shit_ on me."

Emily cracks a chuckle from the silliness Alison was exuding, which makes Alison smile herself. She wipes a lone tear escaping Emily's eye with her thumb.

"It's no big deal. The whole fast thing - i _t happens._ Now...if you were anyone else, like my ex, and blasted me in the face? Yeah, I would have lit you on fire-" Alison jokes, trying to keep things rather light. "But you're fine."

Emily silently nods her head. Alison mimics her movements and nods her head as well before she kissed her. Emily felt such a relief, weight melted right off her shoulders, allowing her to stand up straight and move freely again. The whole concept of sex to Emily didn't seem realistic for the longest time. Who honestly, in their right mind, would want to have sex with her? Even today, the thought of it is still surreal. Sometimes, it would make her anxious as she felt the world of responsibility to live up to this outlandish perception of never disappointing if she did ever have the chance again. It was crushing her because what if she couldn't? What if all she does is disappoint? Especially with some like Alison who clearly appears as a person who expects nothing less than her expectations. However, with just a few words, Alison made that tight, suffocating feeling vanish. For now.

"We should go back to your work," Emily reminds her, realizing the main purpose of her stay in her office.

"No," Alison says soft yet defiantly.

"Alison. The paper is due at midnight. It is a little after nine and you're not even halfway through."

" _God._ Can't you just let me fail one assignment in peace?"

"Not if I have any say in it."

"You don't," Alison huffs, leaning her body into Emily's with annoyance. Just for a second, a quick moment, her class was out of sight, out of mind. The room stays quiet for an additional five seconds before Alison groans loudly.

"I _really_ hate this paper."

"But it still needs to get done," Emily replies right back on beat.

An eye roll is elicited from that response along with more silence.

"How about this..." Alison begins as she glides her arms from being around Emily's neck to her waist. "If...I give you another blowjob...will you do my paper for me?"

Emily's eyes widened, tightly narrowed then closed, in the span of three seconds - the emotional journey of seeing the advantage Alison was attempting to take.

"Alis-"

"And I'll throw in a bonus. I'll let you see my tits."

Emily's eyes snapped opened again. " _What?_ "

"Okay, I'll let you touch them. Don't be greedy," Alison scoffs. "Look, this is a premium payment. _Top dollar_. I want you to think long and hard about this one before you give me an answer."

"I don-"

" _Think!_ Do you know how far I can get with a blowjob and a flash of my boobs? _Pretty damn far._ I could entice a president and have him start a war for me like Olivia Pope."

With the shake of her head, Emily breathes in, slouching her shoulders. "You don't have to sell yourself to me, Alison," she quietly answers to her bargain.

"Then it's settled!" Alison perks up like a meerkat emerging into the sunlight, grin wide and pleased. "BJ and boobs for that paper. I'm going to use your bathroom," she says I'm one mouthful, kissing Emily's cheek before skipping out of her arms and out the room with a bounce.

Emily is lost for words, stuttering over herself as she had just felt played by a trick con artist. " _Wait!_ I didn't say yes!"

"I hope you have your thinking cap on! We go again in about 30 minutes!" Alison yells back from the hallway.

...

A little over thirty minutes pass by and, as promised, Alison is trained and ready to get out of her classwork. Emily sits in her office chair, leg bouncing as she quickly scrolls through the depths of the internet to give her some kind of fighting chance to finish a 6 page biochemistry paper in about 2 1/2 hours. Tonight was supposed to be a relaxed night for her after a couple intense, hard weeks with her own work. But now...she's on the clock. A part of her wants to say no and force Alison to be disciplined with this assignment but in the same sentence, she knew Alison wasn't going to do it (either that or will turn it in late) and she didn't want that for her. One would say Alison fully responsible for the consequences of her actions but she couldn't help it. Especially when it's something she likes. Which reminded her - she needs her to know this won't be a thing between them. First and last time she's going to be her scapegoat. This is technically illegal.

Emily's attention is cut in half when Alison grabs the back of her grey tank and gently pulls her out of her seat, directing her to the couch she had in the corner of the room.

"Ready for round two?" she asks with a devious grin as she pushes Emily onto her back.

"I hope so." Emily deeply sighs, her nerves tingling throughout her skin again. She doesn't know why she's so anxious as if this was the first. Everything almost felt as if everything around her was slowing down and her awareness has become heightened.

"Since we're on a time crunch, I'm going to skip the all the formalities and small talk," Alison explains as she takes a hair tie from her wrist and pulls up her hair into a ponytail. "So, just relax."

Back into familiar territory, Alison tugs down Emily's pants and begins working her well introduced cock into a stiff hard-on for when she decides to go down on her again. Being the third time at this, nothing gets Alison more surprised, more curious, than the transformation Emily goes through when aroused. She's not on the ferris wheel where it's dark and has limited vision. She's up close and personal.

The benefit of touching Emily while she's hardening is one thing but how she "grows" is something that borderline fascinates Alison. As far as she knows, Emily's shaft is small when relaxed. Very small. However, when the blood starts flowing to the right places, she grows into something worth holding onto. If she had to calculate, about 7 inches worth holding onto. She honestly couldn't believe the drastic change with every gentle tug but it was certainly becoming a favorite discovery she liked to watch.

Alison starts with a few mouth movements that were soft to ease into things. Soft and her tongue over the head, taking licks where the head meets the shaft. She uses delicate pressure to repeat her motions several times before she took the whole tip into her mouth.

Emily curses under her breath, balling her hands into fists as the groans escaped. This was like music to Alison's ears. She liked the sounds of Emily letting out the lightest, overwhelmed moans. She liked even more that she is the cause of it.

After a few minutes of teasing and giving attention to the head, she plunges down and attempts take Emily as far down as she could, stiffening her tongue so it slides down the underside. She, then, slurps her way back to the top before she goes back down, creating a bobbing tempo. Alison glances up at Emily, staring at her from her lowered position, watching every reaction she pulls out of her. Emily breathes in sharply, catching Alison's gaze with her light, twinkling blue eyes. Even getting a wink.

Her body continuously tenses up with every suck, putting Emily in different realm of thoughts. She feels a warm hand cascade up her stomach as Alison slides her fingers under Emily's tank and starts caressing her lean abdomen, adding more touch sensations. The hums and low moans out of Alison herself vibrate against her cock, causing her to teeter on the edge.

Alison begins to pick up the pace to a faster speed with a sloppier technique as her hand travels from Emily's stomach to gripping her hips to balance herself. Emily whimpers as she digs her nails into the palm of her hands during all of this with Alison's full, velvety lips pulling out every sense of control she had remaining.

The long minutes feel like melted seconds when they soon started approaching the grand finale moment that came way too soon earlier. Emily's whining were game-changing for Alison to listen to and motivated her suck even harder even though she felt Emily's muscles tensing in her hands and her hips slightly thrusting upwards.

"Ali-Ali...I'm... _I'm really close,_ " Emily quickly warns her through frantic, garbled speech.

Alison releases Emily with one final, tight suck before she started jerking her off again. She didn't want to get caught with another facial surprise this time. Emily writhed under Alison's grasp, rumbling like a foreshock before the main earthquake that took over her body.

" _FuuuuCK!_ Fuck! Shiiit!" Emily bellows as she ejaculated on her stomach, the direction Alison pointed her to. As Emily appears as if she was seeing stars, Alison proudly beams, moving the strands of her hair that came undone behind her ear. _Damn, I am so good._

" _See._ I told you the first time wasn't a big deal."

Emily pants tirelessly as Alison hops up and reaches over to grab a few bunches of toilet paper she brought to wipe Emily's stomach off.

"How would you rate that out of five stars?" Alison questions with a sweet yet curious tone. She knows what she would give herself. Obviously. But she'd like to hear the review of a satisfied customer.

"Fi...five. Five stars..." Emily barely answers, out of breath, trying to collect her bearings.

" _Good,_ " she smiles brightly as she chucked the dirty tissues into the small garbage can at the corner of Emily's desk and helps lifts up her pants back up her hips. "I'll give you the second part of the payment _after_ verified completion of your end. Now, if you don't mind, I kinda worked myself into an appetite. I'll be back."

Once again, Alison taps Emily's leg before she jumps to her feet and swiftly makes her way out of the room. Emily closes her eyes with a groan now that she was alone in the room. Her orgasmic high started dissipating rather quickly as she was brought back to reality.

She has a whole paper to do in less than 2 hours.

 _Fuck. Why did I accept this deal?_

...

Busting her ass like a hacker working against a timer before they get caught and fail the very important mission, Emily presses submit right at 11:58pm. Two minutes before the door closes for the assignment to be turned in. She slumps back into her chair, a bead of sweat on her forehead, mentally exhausted, never wanting to be in that position again.

"There." she heaves. "Finished and submitted. Signed by _Alison DiLaurentis._ "

Alison stands up from the couch she was lounging on with her phone, walking behind Emily and peering at the computer screen over her shoulder. "Ah, just on time."

"Barely by the skin of my teeth."

" _Well_ , you stayed true to your word and I stay by mine."

Emily turns in her chair to face Alison who shakes her hair in place and lifts up her pink sweater to the smooth flesh of her stomach and breast. Emily tries to keep her gawking eyes to a minimum to prevent herself from looking like a star struck teenager who's only seen "boobs" in magazines. To her surprise, it seems like Alison wasn't wearing a bra underneath her sweater, which she could get away with if that were the case. But, it just made her wonder if this was the plan all along. Anyways, leaving the conspiracy theories alone for a moment, Emily reaches up to touch them, causing Alison to flinch from her cold hands.

"Sorry," Emily recoils, rubbing her hands together quickly before returning back to her little, gentle groping session.

It almost felt weird, she doing this. They weren't small and petite but they weren't big and bountiful neither. A healthy medium in between would best describe the soft, warmth of Alison's chest. Round yet perky. Suddenly, Emily has the overwhelming urge to lean forward and put one of them in her mouth. As delicate as they felt under her touch, especially with Alison's nipples visibly hardening, she could only imagine how they'd taste. However, that was not in the rules. The contract said look and touch, not look, touch, and suck.

Alison's eyes stay on Emily the entire time in a focused stare. After a few seconds, she'd mindlessly smile to herself or bite her lip but she wasn't aware of herself doing it. For some people, it might be seen as awkward to fondle with a girl's breast in silence but Alison didn't mind it all. Despite Emily being older, she looked so innocent at the same time which tickled Alison because she's never seen anything like it. With her free hand, she places her fingers inside Emily's hair, combing it through. They were quickly approaching dangerous threat levels, if not careful.

"Are you staying over?" Emily asks to break the quiet, slowing down her touches to a complete halt. It was like Emily felt those dangers creeping as well.

"I would but I didn't bring anything to change into," Alison sighs as she pulls down her sweater and fixes herself. "Not to mention the drive from here to the school. I have my morning classes tomorrow so I would have to wake up extra early just to drive back."

"Yeah, I get it," Emily stands up, shoving her tingling hands in her pockets as she watched Alison put on her coat and grab her purse. They both walk out the study room and down the hall to the front door with Emily not knowing exactly what to say after everything that had transpired.

"I, uh, I really enjoyed your company here, though."

" _Oh, I know you did,"_ Alison twists to smile at her with an ever-so-cheeky wink. With her car keys in hand, she slips her feet into her boots waiting for her by the door. "I'll text you when I reach and talk to you tomorrow."

Emily nods. "Alright. Please, drive safe. Don't be in a rush to get back. It's pretty dark and the roads can get slippery."

Alison steps towards Emily, purposely pushing her chest against her as she leans up with her lips poked, inviting Emily to kiss her goodbye. Which, she happily does.

"Thank you for that paper... _nerd,_ " Alison playfully giggles before she kisses Emily again. "Oh, and for those goldfish and Oreos. They were oh so yummy."

" _Ha_. Speaking of, tonight was the last night that's going to happen, I hope you know that," Emily points out to her as they separated and Alison reached for the door.

" _Mhmm_." Alison nods. "Whatever you say. _Goodnight_."

"Goodnight," Emily waves before she watches Alison enter the winter of the night to her car to then close the door. She stands quietly in her, again, empty home. Just breathing.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

"What the hell just happened tonight?"

 **Hey ho. I hope I didn't disappoint with this update. Lord** _ **knows**_ **how long I was battling to finish this chapter. There is a lot of things sprinkled about to unpack. Great for rereads! God bless Emily and her obliviousness. Alison is the perfect kind of personality to balance her out, don't you think? Of you made it to this point, I want to say thank you for continuing to read this story! It really means a lot that people still care about it. As long as someone is reading it, I'll try my hardest to write for you.**


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